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Alhambra City Officials Rally Residents Behind 710 Freeway Expansion

ALHAMBRA (KNX 1070) — Alhambra city officials held their "710 Day" celebration in the San Gabriel Valley Wednesday in a bid to rally residents behind a plan to extend the 710 Freeway to Pasadena.

Interim City Manager of Alhambra, Mary Swank, says the latest step in the 50-year plus battle is an 18-month environmental review to put a tunnel through Valley St., which she hopes will help to alleviate heavy traffic on the 710.

"It's July 10, and today we're just making it clear it's time to clean up the 710 Freeway," Swank told KNX1070's Megan Goldsby.

Alhambra City Manager Promotes 710 Day

"We have over 50,000 cars a day come through this street that should be on a freeway," she said.

Live music, face painting and balloons reading "Close the Gap 710" shut down part of Fremont St. in Alhambra.

Swank estimated 2,000 people came to 710 Day.

John Shafer, of the San Rafael Neighborhood Association in Pasadena, said the proposal may have made sense in the Sixties.

"It doesn't make sense at all when we're transitioning from a car society to a transit society," he said.

Pasadena Resident Against 710 Tunnel

"The reality is that it actually puts more cars on the San Bernadino Freeway and makes conditions around Alhambra even worse."

His group is pushing for more money to be spent on public transit instead.

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