Construction overview fact sheet now online for Westside Subway Extension

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The rendering shows temporary lane closures for initial excavation prior to installation of concrete decking.

I’ll cut right to the part of the new construction fact sheet for the Westside Subway Extension that will likely interest you most:

Construction Schedule

Construction timing for the Project is dependent upon how the funding package for the project comes together. Presuming that the environmental clearance process concludes in 2011 and funding is secured, final design and contractor selection processes would occur in 2012.

It is likely that early utility relocation work and removal of paleontological resources (fossils) below Wilshire Bl in the vicinity of the La Brea Tar Pits could start sometime in 2012, with heavier construction starting on tunnels and stations in 2013. If funding is secured to build the 9-mile extension all at the same time, construction along the entire alignment to the Westwood/VA Hospital could potentially be completed by 2022. In this case, several pairs of TBMs would be used, tunneling various segments of tunnel at the same time, with work proceeding on all stations simultaneously.

If the project must be built in phases, based on the adopted Metro Long Range Transportatation, the first phase would proceed west from the Wilshire/Western Station to approximately La Cienega and it could take until 2036 to complete subsequent construction phases to reach the Westwood/VA station.

Here’s the link for the rest of the six-page fact sheet that explains the basics of the construction process — how stations are excavated, tunnels are bored and what construction will look like above ground. (Click here for a printable pdf version).

As for the above timeline, this is exactly why the America Fast Forward program is so important. If Congress can be persuaded to change federal law, Metro hopes to use low-interest federal loans and other financing to build the subway extension all at once, as well as try to accelerate the construction of the dozen transit projects funded by Measure R.

As regular readers know, it’s very hard to say what Congress may do. The America Fast Forward program would make the feds a lender instead of simply a spender. But there’s currently an anti-spending craze in Washington that could greatly pare down federal spending on transportation. Loosely translated, that means building a subway in a quarter century or doing it all at once over the next decade.

Or, to put it another way, how does not having a good alternative to sitting in Westside traffic sound for another 25 years?

Categories: America Fast Forward, Measure R, Policy & Funding, Projects

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11 replies ›

  2. Good thing we live in Los Angeles and not the Westside cities, it looks like a mess until 20XX? I’m fine now with the Purple/Red/Blue/Gold/Green lines getting me around.

  4. I hope the reduce spending craze gripping washington will not impact job creating infrastructure projects beamer184

  5. I just don’t understand why all the opposition and red tape that Metro has to go through to install the subway to the Sea and why it has to stop short of Santa Monica at Westwood/ UCLA? In Europe and other countries a plan- project- result is a lot more efficient.

  6. Even 12 years is way to long to wait for an alternative to west la traffic. Some how, some way, it needs to be built faster than that. And my god having to wait till 2036 would be a nightmare. West LA traffic will be at a complete and total standstill well before then. And the expo line is a good start and is way overdue but is still considerably further south from most main activity centers so all bus connections need to be no longer than 10 to 15 minute head ways and need to run up all major boulevards for people to be willing to make connections from the line. Anything less than that would be selling the that line short especially without the presence of the purple line.

  10. I’m a fan of model railroading. Somebody needs to create the subway construction model railroad based on that rendering.

    Also, I hope that schedule can be sped up considerably. We do things ridiculously slow here.