LA Metro D-Line Expo Purple Line Incl.: Crenshaw/LAX Westside LRT

Subway opening pushed to 2025 - Beverly Press & Park Labrea NewsBeverly Press & Park Labrea News - January 10, 2024
Some of the challenges of tunneling:

Tunneling, for example, was conducted in extremely challenging geologic conditions that included subsurface gases like methane and hydrogen sulfide as well as tar sands in the vicinity of the La Brea Tar Pits. The presence of these soils previously prevented tunning in the area for more than 20 years until advanced tunneling methods and machines were developed.

...
Metro also overcame man-made obstacles, including avoiding unmapped, abandoned oil wells along the alignment. What’s more, Metro had to remove metal objects in the path of both subway tunnels at Wilshire/San Vicente that would have potentially damaged the [tunnel boring machines] if they struck the object.

But at least that's now out of the way -- and out of the way for the entire extension.

A plausible next stop for the A/Gold Line in the foothill area is Ontario International Airport, but that has some challenges. One has to get to Airport Drive and Archibald Avenue, where the airport's passenger terminals are.

The railroad lines, Metrolink's San Bernardino and Riverside Lines, run east-west, though the Riverside Line runs just north of Airport Drive at the airport.

So one will have to go north-south in some convenient right-of-way. There isn't one, since it's all city streets, though some of them are rather broad. The closest that I could find is I-10, the San Bernardino Freeway.

One would continue east from Montclair to Central Ave., then turn south for about 5 blocks to I-10, then go east in it to Archibald Ave., then go south for about 2 blocks to the airport. The total distance: 7 miles.

Or else one could go about 1.5 miles in the San Bernardino Line, then about 5 blocks southward in Euclid Avenue, then continue in I-10.

The light-rail line would either take up two lanes in these streets or else run in an elevated viaduct.

Read the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the K Line Northern Extension | The Source
noting
KNE_DraftEIR - Dropbox

The north end of the line is currently at Exposition and Crenshaw Blvds. The existing line is in a tunnel there, and emerges to street level just south of Vernon Blvd. and goes underground again just north of W 60th St. It emerges again at W 67th St. and goes southwest, paralleling Florence Ave, and goes on something of a roller coaster to the Green Line tracks.

They have settled on three alignments: La Brea (LB), Fairfax (FF), and San Vicente - Fairfax (SV). They are all in tunnels. KNE_DEIR_2_ProjectDescription.pdf

Existing north end - Crenshaw Blvd. - station at Adams Blvd. - under some properties - Midtown Crossing at San Vicente Blvd. at Venice and Pico Blvds. - San Vicente Blvd.

LB: Redondo Ave. - La Brea Ave. (stations at Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Blvd.) - station at Santa Monica Blvd. - under some properties - station at Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave.

FF: Fairfax Ave. (stations at Wilshire Blvd., 3rd St.) - station - Santa Monica Blvd. - station at La Brea Ave. - turn into Highland Ave. - station at Hollywood Blvd.

SV: Fairfax. Ave. (station at Wilshire Blvd.) - station - Beverly Blvd. - station at La Cienega Blvd. - N Sherbourne Dr. - N San Vicente Blvd. - station - Santa Monica Blvd. (stations at Fairfax Ave., La Brea Ave.) - turn into Highland Ave. - station at Hollywood Blvd.

Some parts of these routes will go underneath various properties:

• Crenshaw Blvd., Adams Blvd. - San Vicente Blvd., Pico Blvd.
• San Vicente Blvd., Hauser Blvd. - Fairfax Ave., WIlshire Blvd.
• San Vicente Blvd. -- (West Hollywood Park) - Santa Monica Blvd.
• Santa Monica Blvd., Orange Ave. - Hlighland Ave.
• Fairfax Ave., Waring Ave. - (Crescent Heights Blvd., Romaine St.) - Santa Monica Blvd.
• Redondo Blvd. - La Brea Ave.
• La Brea Ave., Santa Monica Blvd. - (Lexington Ave.) - Highland Ave., Sunset Blvd.

All of the stations will be underground.

There is a possible extension in Highland Ave. to the Hollywood Bowl stadium, though the route will stay in Highland Ave. and continue northward as a tailtrack.

This whole thing screams "Tunnel Boring Machine!" since other tunneling methods are impractical for those tunnels.

The executive summary and introduction make no mention of TBM's, but the project description does, mentioning "TBM" 47 times. The description includes proposed TBM launch and extraction sites, and proposed sequences of TBM operation.

I suspect that the tunnels will go underneath the B/Red and D/Purple Lines, as the San Francisco Central Subway did with the Market Street BART/Muni tunnel.

The construction is to be split into two or three parts, one part south of Wilshire Blvd. and one or two parts north of that street. This means that one can do the Expo-Wilshire part first and the Wilshire-Hollywood part later.

New Details on LA Metro's K Line Northern Extension to Hollywood - YouTube - discussing this planned extension in gory detail.

Author Nick Andert argues that many of the stations are overbuilt, with a crossover at most of them. He thinks that a crossover at every third station should be adequate. He also considers the issue of compatibility with other extension plans.

He suspects that this overbuilding is deliberate, to make it easy to trim down the construction, like have a crossover only every three stations. He also says that when one must revise one's plans, it's easier to decide to build less than to build more, because one won't have to do as much planning.

He prefers the Fairfax - San Vicente option because it reaches the most people, even though it is the most expensive, with it needing the most tunneling.

Projects Archive - LA Metro and Los Angeles Metro Rail - Wikipedia

Under construction:

• K line extension Westchester - C line wye - later this year?
• D line extensions 1 to La Cienega, 2 to Century City, 3 to the VA Medical Center - 2025, 2026, 2027
• A line extension 2A: Azusa - Pomona - 2025
• LAX Automated People Mover - Wikipedia and LAWA Official Site | Transforming LAX - 2026
• East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project - LA Metro Van Nuys Blvd. - 2031

Final Design:

• Foothill Gold Line Project Update Newsletter – Summer 2024 A line extension 2B: Pomona - Montclair - 2030

Final Environmental Impact Report:

• Aerial Rapid Transit - LA Metro and Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit - Union Station - Dodger Stadium
• Southeast Gateway Line (previously West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor) - LA Metro - Slauson (on A line) - Paramount (new on C line) - Pioneer (in Artesia) - 2035
• Eastside Transit Corridor Phase 2 - LA Metro - E line: Atlantic - Greenwood - 2035

Draft Environmental Impact Report stage:

• Metro C Line Extension to Torrance - LA Metro Redondo Beach - Torrance
• Metro K Line Northern Extension - LA Metro - Expo/Crenshaw - Hollywood/Highland
• Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project - LA Metro - San Fernando Valley (G busway, Van Nuys line) - Westside (D line, E line)
• Arts District / 6th Street Station - LA Metro - extension of B and D lines from Union Station

Further down:

• Vermont Transit Corridor - LA Metro - bus rapid transit
• G line BRT conversion to light rail
• Lincoln Boulevard line in Santa Monica: BRT?
• Burbank - Glendale
• D line to Burbank Airport
• C line to Norwalk Metrolink station
• "Pink Line"? "Silver Line"? Union Station - Hollywood - Beverly Hills - D line u.c. Century City station
• Harbor Line - A or C lines to San Pedro
• D line from Westwood to Santa Monica
• Venice Blvd. line
• North Hollywood to Pasadena Transit Corridor - LA Metro
• North San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor - LA Metro

When doing some other research, I came across a possible right-of-way for a rail connection.

Hybrid-Rail-Service-Planning-Study-2018.pdf On page 26 is Figure 6-1: Rail Access to Ontario Airport, and it features a very unexpected sort of right of way: a stream channel. The LA area has several of these, which are essentially concrete trenches for water to flow through.

A rail line would be built on top of one of these channels, turning it into a box culvert.

One of these channels goes north-south through Ontario Airport, and a rail line from the airport would turn northward onto it. At Inland Empire Blvd., the channel turns gently eastward, crossing Archibald Ave. and then gently turns northward, crossing the intersection of 4th St. and Hermosa Ave., crossing 6th St. then 8th St., and reaching the San Bernardino Metrolink line, about 1.3 miles west of the Rancho Cucamonga station.

There is another channel which could be used, and it joins that channel at I-10, San Bernardino Freeway. It goes northward tilted a bit westward, crossing 4th, 6th, and 8th Sts., and reaching the San Bernardino Line about 2.8 miles west of that station. It is about 2.2 miles west of Upland station, and 5 miles from Montclair station, the currently planned end of he A/Gold Line. The currently-being-constructed end of the line is Pomona station, some 3.3 miles further.

A little to the west is another stream channel, San Antonio Creek Channel. One can also use it to go southward, and then use an east-west route to get to the airport, either in I-10 or else in Holt Blvd.

Metro Van Nuys Light Rail Line Receives $893 Million in Federal Full Funding Grant Agreement - Streetsblog Los Angeles - "Metro anticipates full East San Fernando Valley rail construction getting underway this year, and completing in 2031"

The ~$3.6 billion new rail line will be located in the middle of Van Nuys Boulevard, initially extending 6.7 miles from the G (Orange) Line to San Fernando Road, with an anticipated additional 2.5-mile phase extending north along San Fernando Road.

Padilla, Cárdenas Celebrate $893 Million for LA Metro’s East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project - Senator Alex Padilla

The south end of the line is at the G/Orange Line Busway between Oxnard and Calvert Sts. The line continues north in Van Nuys Blvd., turning in it between Plummer St. and Woodman Ave., and ending at San Fernando Road.

They plan to build the line further north along SF Road in the Metrolink Ventura Line's right of way to Metrolink's Sylmar / San Fernando Station on Hubbard St., but that seems rather cramped. It looks like there is only enough room for 2 or maybe 3 tracks along much of that route, and that will be trouble for plans to double-track the Metrolink Antelope Valley Line.

From the main document in ESFV Final EIS-EIR - Dropbox I could not find out how the line will cross the AVL, but one map shows how the line may cross Metrolink's Ventura Line. Figure 2-18 on page 2-36, PDF page 168. It shows a trench or tunnel between Hart and Parthenia Sts.: several blocks.

Hello 'Southeast Gateway Line' and Farewell 'West Santa Ana Branch' - Streetsblog Los Angeles - January 22, 2024

This morning Metro leadership announced the "Southeast Gateway Line" has been selected for Metro's planned 19-mile rail line project that will serve Artesia, Bell, Bellflower, Cerritos, Cudahy, Downey, Florence-Firestone, Huntington Park, L.A., Paramount, South Gate, and Vernon.

Metro will use the new Southeast Gateway title for the project until it opens to the public, when a line letter will go into effect.

Metro Releases Final Environmental Documents for Southeast Gateway Line - Streetsblog Los Angeles - April 10, 2024 - "The new Southeast Gateway Line EIS/EIR doesn't have major changes compared to the draft EIS/EIR released in 2021"

With quite a few aerial sections and a new connection to the C (Green) Line in middle of the 105 Freeway, this is a pretty expensive rail project. Just the initial lower section is expected to cost around $7.1 billion, which is up from a 2022 estimate of $4.9 billion.

Metro has roughly $2 billion for the line (mainly sales tax revenue) and must seek additional funds from the federal government. The timeline depends on funding; optimistically, construction might get underway around 2025-6, with an opening around 2035.

I checked on EIS_EIR - Dropbox in particular 02 Chapter 2_Project Description Alternatives Considered.pdf 02 Chapter 2_Project Description Alternatives Considered.pdf Figure 2.5 on page 2-27, PDF page 33.

It follows an old rail line, and it's something of a roller coaster. Slauson A/Blue-Line station - elev - Randolph St. - (Alameda Ave.) - surf - (State St.) - elev - Salt Lake Ave. - (Gage Ave.) - surf - (Patata St.) - elev - (Firestone Blvd.) - elev - Southern Ave. - surf - (Los Angeles River bridge) - surf - (I-710) - (Rio Hondo bridge) - surf - (Imperial Hwy. bridge) - surf - (I-105, C-line bridge) - elev - (Paramount Blvd., Rosecrans Ave.) - surf - elev - (Downey Ave.) - elev - (Somerset Blvd.) - surf - (Flower St. bridge) - surf - (SR-91 bridge) - surf - elev - (Gridley Rd.) - elev - surf - (Pioneer Blvd.)