Apparently discussion of the idea of putting a tunnel under East Atlanta neighborhoods – in an effort to funnel traffic away from the connector – is still going hot and heavy down at the Gold Dome.  The AJC reported on this a couple days back, but it just caught my attention again when it popped up on the front page of AJC.com.

“The tunnel is the one project that absolutely, head and shoulders above every other P3, moves the needle the most on congestion mitigation and mobility,” said David Doss, who chairs the state Transportation Board’s committee on such projects. The reason it wasn’t listed at the very top of DOT’s project list was because of the “unknowns” involved in creating a new urban road tunnel here, he said.

Where to begin this time?

Um, how about more highway pavement doesn’t actually relieve congestion?  It just encourages more folks to set up shop in the fragile exurb ecosystem?  How about the cost to build and maintain the dang thing will be astronomical?  How about the level of damage done to those east-side neighborhoods during construction and after?  (Ben’s already done a great job of summarizing these points over at Terminal Station.)

Oh, and here’s the most deliciously insensitive part of this whole cockamamie idea.

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Wheatley points out that House Resolution 201, which proposes a 1-cent statewide sales tax for transportation uses (not to be confused with the Senate bill that allows counties and regions to implement a local 1-cent tax), includes a project that just makes me want to type really unpleasant words in no specific order.

Subterranean highways. Under neighborhoods like Va-Hi, Morningside, East Atlanta, Midtown, Cabbagetown.

Yep! Just like the Big Dig! The same Big Dig that’s cost is forcing Massachusetts to raise its gas tax to the highest in the nation so it can attempt to offset an impending $19 billion deficit? Yep! That’s the one!

In a moment of economic crisis, when the state is already $3 billion over-budget, the suburbs are suffering from foreclosures and inefficiencies, and our transportation infrastructure is the laughing stock of the world, the State legislature is considering funding not just another highway, but a highway of outrageous cost with no proven benefits!

Obviously this project has little chance of ever getting off the ground, but this is the sort of geez-whiz, “that would be so cool!” thinking that scares the crap out of me. Please for the love of God keep the 1-cent sales tax transportation money out of State hands. Let the local gov’ts decide.