The event was held Friday morning. The facility near LAX will store light rail vehicles used on the Crenshaw/LAX Line and the Green Line.  The news release from Metro:

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) today broke ground on a $172 million maintenance and administrative facility for light rail vehicles (LRV) servicing the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Project and the Metro Green Line.

The Southwest Yard, located near Los Angeles International Airport, will be a 115,650 square foot facility constructed by Hensel Phelps/Herzog Joint Venture on a Design-Build contract.

“This is another delivery on the promises of Measure R, the half-cent sales tax for transportation that voters enacted in 2008,” said Metro Board Chair and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “This investment will allow Metro to safely and efficiently maintain the vehicles that will finally connect the growing Metro Rail network to LAX.”

The Southwest Yard will have the capacity to store 70 light rail vehicles and will consist of a main shop, a washing facility, a cleaning platform, a material storage building and a wheel truing shop. The facility can be later expanded as Metro’s rail fleet grows.

“The 200 people to be employed here will be working in a state-of-the art facility designed to keep our new system in a state of good repair,” said Metro CEO Phillip Washington.

The Southwest Yard is being designed and constructed to attain LEED Silver Certification, with “green” features including bicycle parking, designated parking for low-emitting, fuel-efficient and carpool/vanpool vehicles and electric vehicle charging. More than 20 percent of construction materials will consist of recycled content. As California remains in a persistent drought, the Southwest Yard will feature a system to capture and re-use water for vehicle washing, water efficient plumbing fixtures and fittings to reduce water consumption by 40 percent and drought tolerant plans for the landscaping.

The Southwest Yard has facilities for general administration and employee welfare, transportation, miscellaneous maintenance shops and equipment housing and storage. The track configuration and site layout support safe and effective rail vehicle movements for “switching” between functional facilities and storage tracks and between the Maintenance and Operations Facility and mainline tracks.

The Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Project runs from the Metro Expo Line at Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards for 8.5 miles to the Metro Green Line/Aviation/LAX station serving the cities of Los Angeles, Inglewood, Hawthorne and El Segundo. A future “people mover” project will run between the rail line and terminals at LAX.