Metro contractors have just completed the first project on the Metro Orange Line Extension at the same time the “Valley’s Best Short-Cut” marks its fourth anniversary of service.

In June, local pols celebrated the groundbreaking of a replacement parking lot needed to free up real estate at Chatsworth Station so Metro could begin full-fledged construction of the four-mile bus rapid transit line that would link the Canoga Station to Metrolink and Amtrak trains that stop in Chatsworth. Click here for a map of the project.

The replacement lot with 310 spaces, lighting and landscaping allows construction crews to move on to other work on the busway extension.

The next major construction element is a bridge over both Lassen Street and the Metrolink train tracks. That requires considerable work to be done in both engineering and building large diameter shaft foundations, columns and abutments, the bridge superstructure, dual approaches on both ends of the bridge and utility relocations. Read more about future project phases in Metro’s news release.