The above video is the first of three that we’ll roll out over the next few weeks highlighting key Metro projects that are under construction: the Crenshaw/LAX Line, the Regional Connector and the Purple Line Extension.

We’re beginning with the Crenshaw/LAX Line because it’s the furthest along and 91 percent complete as of this writing. The 8.5-mile, $2.058-billion light rail line is scheduled to open next year with eight new stations serving the Crenshaw Corridor, Inglewood, Westchester and the LAX communities.

To make this video, Metro worked with Heritage Tree Films, which is based in the Crenshaw Corridor. Paris McCoy, a Heritage Tree co-owner and cinematographer, is a Crenshaw local and one of the relatively few African-American women working as a cinematographer. Heritage Tree also collaborated with Metro to produce a 360-degree video of the project, which will be released at a later date.

As for the Crenshaw/LAX Line, here are a few basics:

•The project broke ground in early 2014 and is funded heavily by Measure R, the 2008 sales tax measure approved by L.A. County voters. While work continues on the rail line, the new Southwestern Yard Maintenance Facility, a consolidated maintenance facility that will serve both the Crenshaw/LAX Line and the Metro Green Line, has been completed.

Click on map to see larger.

•The northernmost three Crenshaw/LAX Line stations are underground — Expo/Crenshaw, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Leimert Park. The remaining stations are street level or aerial. Check out the map at right.

•The Crenshaw/LAX Line connects with the Green Line just south of LAX. Under a one-year pilot program, when the Crenshaw/LAX Line opens trains will run from Expo/Crenshaw to Norwalk, using both the new Crenshaw tracks and the existing Green Line tracks. Another set of trains will use the Green Line tracks and run between Redondo Beach and Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station.

•An additional station will be built at Aviation and 96th Streets along the Crenshaw/LAX Line and is currently known as the Airport Metro Connector. This station will be the transfer point to the future Automated People Mover that LAX is building. The people mover, in turn, will have three stations within the LAX horseshoe serving airport terminals.

•There is a Measure M project known as the Crenshaw Northern Extension that will eventually extend the Crenshaw/LAX Line north to the Purple Line and Red Line. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2047 but there are efforts underway to see if funding can be secured to accelerate the project.