‘A fiasco from the beginning’ — Caltrans’ costs soar on $1.1 billion San Francisco tunnels

The Sacramento Bee » Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated when the California Transportation Commission voted, despite a host of warnings, to pay a contractor more than $1 billion to build two tunnels and a stretch of road outside San Francisco nine years ago. Now the project, known as the Presidio Parkway, is more than two years late and $208 million over budget. When the commission approved another $34 million in delay-related spending last month, two commissioners who originally opposed the project lamented their predictions had come true.  “This has been a fiasco from the beginning,” Commissioner Bob Alvarado said at the March 14 meeting.