Album: Touring the Devil’s Slide Tunnel construction site with Congressman Lantos

"They’re pretending to be God," Congressman Lantos joked when he saw the simulated stone surfaces at the south portal construction site. It’s probably not the first time anyone has said that about Caltrans, but probably the first time it was intended as a compliment.

Congressman Lantos visited the construction site of the Devil’s Slide Tunnel on Thursday afternoon, May 31. We had an opportunity to drive through the construction at the south portal site, but the real action was at the north portal site, where the bridge over the valley is already beginning to dominate the scene.

Caltrans was eager to show the many places where they had mitigated the loss of wetlands, preserved red-legged frog habitat, and taken smaller steps to ensure the the massive building project did as little collateral damage as possible.

Lantos was clearly happy to see the project getting started. Lantos secured federal funding for a bypass in the early 1980s, and kept it alive until 2005, when the Caltrans finally got approval to build a tunnel instead.

Click any photo to see our album. We’ll update the photos with more detailed captions later.