Tag Archives: Crenshaw Boulevard

Metro staff make contract recommendation for firm to build Crenshaw/LAX Line light rail project

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Click above to see larger. Note: the Metro Board decided in May to build the Leimert Park and Hindry stations.

Click above to see larger. Note: the Metro Board decided in May to build the Leimert Park and Hindry stations.

Metro today provided the agency’s staff recommendation for a contractor to build the 8.5-mile Crenshaw/LAX Line. Staff is recommending a contract in the amount of $1,272,632,356 to Walsh/Shea Corridor Constructors. The contract includes stations at Leimert Park and Hindry that were approved last month by the Metro Board of Directors.

Walsh/Shea is a joint venture between Walsh Construction and J.F. Shea Company. Walsh/Shea has collaborated to work on many other rail projects in the United States, including the DART system in Dallas.

Walsh/Shea was one of four firms to submit proposals for the contract. The Metro staff evaluation gave Walsh/Shea the highest technical score; Walsh/Shea also had the lowest bid in terms of cost.

The Metro Board of Directors will decide on the contract award; the Board can choose to accept or reject the staff recommendation. The Board’s Construction Committee will discuss the contract at its meeting on June 20 and the full Board is scheduled to vote on the contract at their monthly meeting on Thursday, June 27, at Metro’s headquarters adjacent to Union Station. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Both the committee meeting and full Board meetings are, as usual, open to the public.

The Crenshaw/LAX Line is one of 12 transit projects being funded by Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008.

The light rail project between the Expo Line and the Green Line is currently forecast to open in 2019 with major construction beginning in 2014. Utility work is already underway. The Board is also being asked to add funds to the project’s budget to include the Leimert Park and Hindry stations, as well as extra contingency funds, bringing the project’s budget to $2.058 billion, assuming all the funding sources come through. The budget also includes funds for new rail cars, a rail maintenance yard, real estate acquisition and the costs of planning the line and other items not included in the contract total.

Some notes and background about the project and the contract:

•The line is forecast by Metro to have average weekday boardings of just under 25,000 by the year 2035. Metro and Los Angeles World Airports are working together on another Measure R project that would connect the Crenshaw/LAX Line to LAX via either light rail, bus rapid transit and/or people mover. That project is currently scheduled to be completed in the late 2020s and will depend on funding from the city of Los Angeles.

•For those who want the Park Mesa Heights segment placed underground instead of running at street level, I want you to understand the process. First and foremost, it needs to be understood that the Board of Directors and the Federal Transit Administration have approved the project with a street-running segment through Park Mesa Heights. The Board has stuck with this decision.

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South Bay Service Council hosting special meeting Wednesday evening to discuss Metro bus lines 210 and 710

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The Metro South Bay Council will host a special evening meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, February 27, at 6 pm to receive public input on Metro Lines 210 and 710 serving Crenshaw Blvd.

All of the Metro Service Councils have selected specific lines in their regions to develop ideas on how to improve Metro Bus on these corridors. The South Bay Service Council is asking the public to attend and share their suggestions about improving service on Lines 210 and 710 at tomorrow’s special meeting.

The meeting will be held at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, First Floor Community Room (between Sears and the LAPD Substation, by Stocker Street entrance), 3560 Martin Luther Kings Jr Blvd, in the City of Los Angeles. If you are not able to attend the meeting, but would like to submit recommendations about either or both of these routes to the Service Council, please send your comments to servicecouncils@metro.net.

For more information about this corridor study, and all of the corridor studies being conducted by Metro Service Councils, click here to read a previous posting on the subject.

Metro bus detours for Kingdom Day Parade on Saturday, Jan 19

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This year’s Kingdom Day Parade will be held on Saturday, January 19 from 10:15 a.m. to 1 p.m.The parade will begin at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Western Avenue and travel west along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to Crenshaw, where the parade route will turn south. The route ends at Leimert Park, where the MLK Gospel Festival will be taking place until 7 p.m. Both the parade and Gospel Fest are open to the public.

Metro will be running bus detours in the area from 5 a.m. – 3 p.m. due to the parade on the following lines:  40, 102, 105, 207, 210, 212, 705, 710, 740 & 757.

For details on route detours, check after the jump or visit Metro’s Service Advisories page.

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Go Metro to Taste of Soul on Saturday

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Taste of Soul, oone of L.A.'s largest street festivals, takes place this Saturday, Oct. 20 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Running down Crenshaw Boulevard between Stocker and Rodeo Road, visitors can sample great food from local restaurants, enjoy live entertainment and check out displays by local artists.

Metro will be there to show videos about the Crenshaw/LAX Line project, which you will – fingers crossed! – be able to take to Taste of Soul 2018.

Also, and this is important, Metro and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy will be at the festival doing community outreach on Metro's new construction careers policy that aims to help those needing work find jobs in the building industry. There will be information available at the festival about how to enroll in union apprenticeship programs on projects such as the Crenshaw/LAX Line

Hop on the Expo Line to Expo/Crenshaw Station, then start walking south on Crenshaw until you come across a huge crowd of people. It should take you less than five minutes.

Bus lines 40, 102, 105, 210, 710 and 740 will detour from 11 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 19 to 6 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 21 for the festival. Signs will be posted at bus stops regarding the temporary routes, or check Metro's service advisories.

 

Go Metro to the Space Shuttle Endeavour's last ride

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The Endeavour on the move early this morning. Photo by Juan Ocampo for Metro.


View Mission 26: The Big Endeavour in a larger map

The space shuttle is currently parked in a lot at La Tijera and Sepulveda and is scheduled to be underway again within a couple of hours. It’s basically the big transportation story of the next couple of days and I know many of you, including yours truly, will be heading out to see the shuttle. As neat as it was to see it in the air last month, this is much more unique — there are few chances in life to see a space shuttle roll down a Southland boulevard in front of a McDonald’s.

As you’ve surely heard, access to much of the route will be tight because of safety concerns. It’s going to be a tight squeeze for the shuttle on some streets. I followed the shuttle’s route on Crenshaw Boulevard earlier this week and it’s certainly going to be interesting. Yes, it’s a big and wide street — but big spacecraft wide? We’ll soon see!

The above map from the California Science Center — the shuttle’s soon-to-be permanent home — shows the viewing areas available to the public the next couple of days. The area all around Exposition Boulevard is, of course, easily accessed by the new Expo Line. Also, the viewing area at Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Boulevard is about a mile walk south from the Expo Line’s Crenshaw station (a very short and flat bike ride). Keep in mind that the bus lines that normally run on Crenshaw will be detoured and running on Western Avenue (more below on detours).

Also, from our earlier post:

Expo Park will be the only mass viewing area for the shuttle. Endeavour fans should gather around 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13 along Bill Robertson Lane. And make sure to ride the Expo Line there as no cars will be allowed into the park. Both the Expo/Vermont Station and Expo Park/USC Station will drop you off a short walk from the official shuttle route.

The Expo Line will run at 6 minute headways from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, and the Red, Purple and Gold lines will also run enhanced service. To make the trip easier on yourself, load up your TAP card before Endeavour starts to move. For more information on TAP cards — Metro’s re-usable fare cards — please click here.

After the jump is a list of bus detours in effect for the next two days.

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