The Westside Subway Extension project began a new round of community meetings this week aimed at updating the public on the final environmental study that is currently underway.

Here’s a link to the presentation for community members and here’s a link to a list of the two other community meetings. The presentation is an easy read. Here are a few nuggets from it that I thought you may find interesting:

•At Westwood, planning staff are now focusing on a station location at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards. The candidate site under UCLA parking lot 36 is more challenging because of the approval for a new hotel at Wilshire and Gayley. The UCLA site, however, will likely have a station entrance.

•Each station will have one or two construction staging areas because of the need to dig the stations from above. The station “boxes” below ground will be about 650 feet long.  A crossover track — so trains can switch tracks — will need to be added at about three station locations adding about 400 more feet at those stations. One crossover track not located at a station is being contemplated as the tunnels would pass near the West Los Angeles Federal Building and the 405 Freeway. Construction methods are being evaluated that would reduce street closures.

•Most of the staging areas will require an acre, with a preference for areas immediately adjacent to the station boxes. Three or four of the staging areas will be used to lower and later remove tunnel boring machines into the ground and other purposes. Those staging areas will require about three acres of land. Metro will need to obtain the land for these areas.

•All the stations will have one entrance except for the Westwood/UCLA station, which will have two because of expected passenger loads there. One entrance is anticipated at that UCLA parking lot and another somewhere at the Westwood Boulevard intersection. The stations will be designed so more entrances could be added by adjacent property owners.

•Although there won’t be a station at Wilshire and Crenshaw, Metro owns property at the intersection and that will likely be used for a ventilation shaft and construction staging.

•Station area advisory groups are being formed for the four stations in the city of Los Angeles and the two in Beverly Hills. They will be comprised of about 10 community stakeholders each who will consult with Metro on certain issues involving the station, including design, construction and art for each.

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