In the last few months, Camacho has shopped the tunneling idea to folks at the Hines Corporation, Metro, the Houston-Galveston Area Council and HVJ Construction. But his support has grown most noticeably where it is most needed: in the political sphere. Councilman Garcia has met with Camacho several times and even arranged the meeting with Trietsch. State Representative Jessica Farrar provided the forum in April for Camacho to make his first public presentation. And the most recent neighborhood meeting had an aide to U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee down front taking notes.
Though most agree the tunnel concept's chances are slim to none, no one is writing off an upset, either. "Things like this tend to get adopted when a visionary elected official takes an interest in it," Story says. "It needs a champion."
Daniel Kramer
Gonzalo Camacho's "tunnel vision" is enjoying the
support of neighborhood groups and getting some
needed political attention.
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Despite the shortcomings of business-as-usual highway expansion projects, in the engineering ranks there is still hesitancy about going underground.
"It's like doing reconstruction on an old house," says Carol Lewis, director for transportation training and research at Texas Southern University. "You don't know what you're going to get until you start digging down there."
Digging up Main Street for the light rail, crews were faced with surprises, uncovering lots of cabling and telecommunications lines that weren't recorded on any surveys the crews had. "If you have an option, the question's going to be 'Why tunnel?' " Lewis says.
So strip away the argument about cleaner air. Forget about saving historic homes and planting bucolic parks. Don't consider safety. At the bottom of Camacho's tunnel vision is the greater glory of Houston. A grand project on par with those in some of the most majestic European cities would offer the city a new image of itself. And this is where popular thought in regard to infrastructure projects seems to be heading.
Recent talk of roping NASA into helping plan the future of Houston's transportation could help fuel a shift in philosophy.
"Even if it's a light rail pulled by two longhorns with the NASA seal, if we can have that partnership between NASA and Metro in Texas here…people will come to Houston to see it," says Camacho. "We always talk about Houston as the Space City -- well, there it is. There's a huge need for that."
In the meantime, Camacho has adjusted his initial estimates, suggesting tunnels and traditional highway models could be much closer together with regard to cost, and has begun planning an international design competition to put skin on the bones of the tunnel concept.
While some bank on a political champion raising the tunnel standard, Camacho, faithfully working the hometown crowds, is banking on a grassroots swell. After all, they're the ones with their feet to the fire.
"I certainly think it will be residents that will make it happen," Camacho says, adding: "If they think they can just sit back and relax, they better think twice."
