After four months of touchy negotiations, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and Federal Highway Administration are close to agreement on the parameters for an "independent tunnel study."
At the board's Tuesday morning meeting, supervisors expressed satisfaction with recent moves by the FHWA to ensure the proposed study of the feasibility of a tunnel through Devil's Slide is independent and complete.
"Our negotiations have been very successful in getting close to what we asked for," said Supervisor Ted Lempert.
His comments were echoed by Supervisor Mike Nevin. "I think we've come a long way and we're almost home."
But getting there proved more difficult than supervisors anticipated. On Dec. 29, the California Department of Transportation angered the board by moving forward with the study by issuing a "Request for Qualifications" to engineers. CalTrans did so without approval of the board or, apparently, the FHWA. Supervisors had specifica