The Metro Board of Directors meeting is Thursday at 9 a.m. at Metro HQ adjacent to Union Station. As always, the meeting is open to the public. If you can’t make it, you can listen online.
The big ticket item tomorrow: the Board will be considering adoption of the “locally preferred alternative” for the 710 Corridor Project. That alternative, known as ‘5C,’ includes widening the freeway by a lane and a number of other upgrades. Please see our earlier post and here is the 710 Corridor project home page.
Four Board Members have also authored a motion to increase funding for the development of zero-emission trucks. It sounds like adding a zero emission lane in 5C would trigger more environmental review and delay early-action items.
There is also a second motion that asks for early action projects to be built without displacing any residents and to do those projects before deciding on a widening:
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
Just build that damn tunnel already!
This isn’t that project, and the one you’re speaking of. . . Well, let’s just say a tunnel wasn’t chosen.
I usually see about half a dozen homless people passed out on the ground when I take the Red Line on a single ride. Either on the walk to the station or within the station somewhere.
Adding another lane to the Long Beach Freeway only to still have it dump off much of it’s traffic on to Valley Bl. is shear stupidity. The traffic must then navigate via surface streets to the 210 Freeway which was built with the connection to the 710 engineered within its construction. Building Freeways and Light Rail to no where has been the Standard Operating Procedure with the failed MTA. The Blue Line stops short of the Long Beach shore. The Green Line that was supposed to go to LAX missed it by about a mile. The Gold Line doesn’t go to East L.A. College missing it by several blocks. The Expo Line fails to transport it’s riders to the beach with no real bus connection for the last half mile. And now we see the MTA again planning a Freeway so called improvement that will only spend money and not solve the missed connection that was planned for both the 210 and 710 freeways.
It doesn’t take a wiz kid to figure out a way to minimize the air pollution along the 710 freeway or all the others within Los Angeles County. Plant a dense forrest along both sides instead of concrete block walls. Not only will the air be cleaned but noise pollution will be addressed as well. And a calming effect just might reduce accidents with its natural beauty.
If the determination is that the 710 tunnel never gets built then two things should be addressed:
A— 710 should be truncated to end at the 10 San Bernardino Freeway. Alhambra didn’t create the mess and shouldn’t bear the brunt of the terminus.
B— 210 Westbound positioning in Pasadena needs to be adjusted for thru traffic to keep left. The left exit is way too confusing as is.
Hi Steve;
The item today concerns a project on the southern part of the 710 between Long Beach and the 60. The Board last year decided to pursue local road improvements on the 710 North project. Here’s a post about that: https://thesource.metro.net/2017/05/25/metro-board-supports-local-road-improvements-to-help-remedy-710-gap-traffic/
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Thanks Steve
I was responding to Fine’s comment about dumping traffic onto Valley Blvd.
As for the 710 South project, I’m in favor of improving exit/entry ramps without widening. And, as others have mentioned, better cooperation with freight rail to maximize use of the Alameda corridor.
Any follow up on auto interagency transfer?
I definitely enjoyed the motion to officially add the Arts District 6th St Station to the LRTP. Woot.
Since my previous questions weren’t answered, I’ll ask them here.
Does anyone remember when the old MTA/RTD ran their Line 68 from Downtown Los Angeles to Glendora? Where, in Glendora did that bus end, and Where is that stop in relation to the Gold Line extention to Monstclair?
Someone out there MUST have the answers to my questions!
I don’t have the answer to your question but if it’s anywhere it’d be in the book ‘Hidden History of Transportation in Los Angeles’ by Charles P. Hobbs. Lots of information about old bus routes in that one.
Still taking 400 homes away and leaving the area at risk for latex allergies (from rubber tire particulates) and brake-dust inhalation. Electric trucks may be coming but the adoption by the industry will take at least two decades. Meanwhile the Alameda Corridor is running at a 30% capacity and is losing (public-backed) money.
But hey what’s on the BOD buffet? Prime Rib and Salmon?
What Erik says is true, folks. We’re talking about spending $6 Billion widening a dangerous polluting freeway so more trucks can be crammed onto it when there’s a perfectly good grade-separated freight rail expressway right next door operating at ONE THIRD of its intended capacity.
Agreed, especially considering the Alameda corridor. That’s 6 billion we could spend extending the purple line to Santa Monica, or to grade separate our LRT crossings, or improve bus service, but no… what a shame… These funding priorities are backwards.