The Purple Line (D Line) Extension reached a major milestone earlier this month when the design-builder (STS) completed the removal of temporary decking of the street at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.
Originally expected to require 13 weekends of work — including the pausing of work for holiday weekends — the restoration was scheduled to end Monday, February 13. That was before three weekends were lost to storms and another weekend was skipped to accommodate an annual event on Museum Row.
With the work completed on last week, stakeholders will no longer have to contemplate a full closure of the busy intersection.
In addition to removing the underlying steel beams and temporary concrete panels — which weigh the same as a small sedan — workers had to deliver enormous amounts of soil to backfill the gap between the Fairfax Station roof and the Wilshire Boulevard surface. This gap averaged approximately 17 feet.
Then workers laid the permanent asphalt surface and striped it with traffic lanes.
That workers were able to complete final paving is itself a sign of D Line project progress. A quantity of materials must be delivered and removed through the station roof before it can be completed and the decking panel removed.
Section 1 of the D Line extension — including the new La Cienega, Fairfax, and La Brea stations — is forecast to open in late 2024. Permanent rail is being added to the complete Section 1 tunnels. The last roof pour of the three excavated stations is also complete.
A couple more photos of the work are below:
Categories: Projects
When are the E & WB Stops for Lines 20 & 720 at Wilshire/Fairfax Coming Back?
Hi Wayne;
The 20 and 720 bus stop will return to the Wilshire/Fairfax intersection. That must wait until workers complete final restoration of the area. Our best estimate is that the work will conclude this fall. Thanks for putting up with the construction work.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Are there plans for working escalators any time soon at the Vermont/Beverly Station? Been like…more than a month already.
Will you be bring back the 20/720 stop at Wilshire/ Fairfax?? I
What’s the current decking-removal status at the La Brea and La Cienega stations, respectively?
Great accomplishment.
Future subways stations need to be single platform at most stations (large transfer or major destination stations should probable be 2 platforms) and single bore tunnels to save time and money. We have to do better on controlling all costs and the time it takes to do anything around Southern California. Otherwise, we will never have a system large enough to really help with our traffic and making life better around here. Light rail projects too.
The Foothill Gold line folks seem to be the only team that can get several projects over the finish line on time and under budget.