Some good news out of Washington today: Metro received word that $9.7 million in federal funding for the Wilshire bus lane project has been secured. The project, approved by the Metro Board of Directors this past spring, will add 7.7 miles of peak hour bus lanes to portions of Wilshire, [continue reading]
Below is an early analysis from Metro’s government affairs staff of the debt-ceiling compromise before Congress. Not surprisingly, it includes cuts in federal transportation spending: The House and Senate are set to vote today on legislation that reduces our national deficit, raises the debt ceiling and avoids a technical default [continue reading]
Below is the latest update from the Expo Line Construction Authority. For those interested, the More Than Red Cars blog already caught some photos of trains along Flower Street.
By now reality is setting in: We need to dramatically increase our investment in transportation infrastructure just to maintain the status quo. But it looks like Congress isn’t willing to do it, at least in the near future. One might think that we’re sitting pretty in Los Angeles County thanks [continue reading]
Here is the email that went out this afternoon from Foothill Extension Construction Authority CEO Habib Balian to project supporters about the selection of a contractor to build the 11.5-mile line from Pasadena to Azusa: Today, the Authority staff and evaluators had the opportunity to make the case that Kiewit [continue reading]
With the news today that a contractor has been selected to build the Gold Line Foothill Extension, I wanted to post a few photos and drawings of the project. Please feel free to use on your own blog, website, etc! A rendering of the rail bridge to be built over [continue reading]
Big news this afternoon on a key Measure R transit project: A $485.9-million contract has been awarded to a joint venture of two firms, Kiewit and Parsons, to build the 11.5-mile extension of the Gold Line from eastern Pasadena to the Azusa/Glendora border. The contract approved by the Board of [continue reading]
It doesn’t take a genius to realize the haggling — a nice term — in Congress over raising the U.S. debt ceiling and huge federal budget cuts probably doesn’t bode well for many programs, such as transportation. That’s a bad thing, because transit agencies across the U.S. — including Metro [continue reading]
Here are a few images from photographer Gary Leonard’s pictorial on how the south half of the Mulholland Bridge came down the weekend of July 15 to 17. Above is a shot showing what the bridge looked like last Friday afternoon. The demolition began the evening of Friday, July [continue reading]
I wanted to point readers to a Metro staff report from earlier this month that looks at the six-year federal transportation spending bill being floated by Republicans in the House of Representatives. And it doesn’t paint a very pretty picture of what the bill would do to Metro: big-time spending [continue reading]
