The platform at Westwood station.
Rails to be used on phase 2.
The rail line will travel on a bridge under the 405 freeway en route to the above-grade Sepulveda station.
The bridge over Centinela is looking good.
A big thank you to Alan Weeks for taking the photos and allowing us to use them!
Interested in how Metro’s various transit projects are proceeding? Here’s a monthly report that is prepared for the Metro Board of Directors with forecasts on completion dates for different Metro projects. Construction schedules and opening dates can be fluid and depend on a variety of circumstances. In other words, forecasts are subject to change.
At this time, both light rail lines under construction — the Expo Line’s second phase — and the Gold LIne Foothill Extension from eastern Pasadena to Azusa are forecast to be completed in early 2016.
Categories: Projects
When is the purple line to Santa Monica scheduled to be completed?
Hi Robert;
The Purple Line Extension is scheduled to be built in three phases. At this time, the first phase to Wilshire/LaCienega is scheduled to open in 2023, the second phase to Century City in 2026 and the third phase to Westwood/VA Hospital in 2036. That could change if Metro can find the funds to accelerate the project.
The second phase of the Expo Line light rail project between Culver City and downtown Santa Monica is currently forecast to open in early 2016.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
I’ll be happy when this line opens up essentially it makes the expo line go actually some where.
The Expo Line’s construction website says the project will be completed in 2015. Has the date been pushed back, or is 2016 just when the Gold Line extension will open?
Mike Dunn, Mr. Huntington could decide to build on Monday and by Tuesday work began. Environmental laws these days don’t allow that. “Building light rail transit in existing rail corridors – – panacea or nightmare? : the Los Angeles experience” by Edward McSpedon is an eye-opener on what they went through building that line. He headed the LACTC’s Rail Construction Corp. which oversaw the building of the Blue Line. The Metro Library has a copy of the book McSpedeon’s piece appears in. Here is a link to a synopsis: http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=295733
What happened to the North Hollywood station upgrade (building a Red Line entrance within the Orange Line station)?
Mike: Safety regulations and workers’ rights?
Thanks for sharing these photos Alan Weeks and I am glad you are getting to see rail transit restored rather than torn out.
I’m concerned about the track passing under the 405. Is there enough clearance there for rail height, vehicle and pantographs? It doesn’t seem like there is.
Mike Dunn: Laying rail doesn’t actually take that much of the time. The time nowadays includes lots of activities, from utility relocation and construction of stations.
There were hardly any utilities to relocate 100 years ago. Now we have water, sewer, gas, electric, phone and fiber lines crisscrossing under everything.
Stations and bridges take time as well. Not just to build, but to design (and meet all earthquake standards). 100 years ago, the streetcar would stop and people would step down from the train. If you were disabled you’d have to be carried off. Much simpler, but unacceptable today.
In addition, we have laws nowadays protecting workers from being forced to work 16-hour days. Also, now there lots of neighbors and lots of cars crossing the right-of-way, which put major restrictions on what can be done where and when (noise impacts, traffic impacts, etc.)
In short: we have a very crowded environment in which we are building, and higher expectations across the board from the public.
mike dunn,
Because 100 years ago, most of LA was open land, we didn’t have pre-existing buildings to demolish, concrete streets to tear up lay tracks, deal with NIMBY issues, go through stupid endless meetings and studies, and deal with labor unions?
Be glad we don’t live in China.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/29/us-china-landgrab-idUSBRE97S0DF20130829
Why does it take modern construction to take longer to lay the same amount of track than when it was done about 100 years ago. A case in point is the Long Beach Line. It took Henry Huntington’s workers six months to build the line from Los Angeles to Long Beach double tracked. It took approx. three years for the LACTC contracor to lay rail over the same right of way.
Will the new Expo Line stations actually be built with gates and spaces for shops and retail stores in mind instead of being this boring, platform only designs like the current light rail stations?
If we are getting serious about bringing the Olympics here, we really, really need new ways of designing stations instead of just being simple platforms and as a vast empty space just to wait for the train.
Third world countries are building better stations than us!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Imbi_station_(Kuala_Lumpur_Monorail)_(exterior),_Kuala_Lumpur.jpg
The progress on the Olympic bridge is outstanding! The falsework removal is going great from what I saw today.
Looking good. I can’t wait until it is in service all the way to Santa Monica. That will be a great day for many people who live and work on the westside of Los Angeles.