Expo may reach La Cienega by next summer

It’s full speed ahead for the Expo Line.

A street-level, two-platform station next to Dorsey High School has been approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, setting the stage for an anticipated partial opening of the line as far as La Cienega Boulevard by next summer.

The Farmdale Avenue station to be built by Dorsey High will be an essential part of the light rail line, which will parallel the heavily-congested Santa Monica Freeway and eventually stretch from downtown to Santa Monica, attracting a projected 64,000 riders a day. The project also will include pedestrian paths and a bikeway.

Placing an Expo Line crossing at street level next to Dorsey was opposed by some in the community, who voiced concerns about the safety of students. The CPUC-approved plan to construct a street-level station at the site comes with a number of key safety enhancements, including a 15 mph speed limit for trains passing through the intersection and a requirement that trains come to a full stop to pick up and drop off passengers before proceeding into the area. Other features include gates and LED signs to signal approaching trains.

Constructing a station, rather than the crossing that originally was envisioned, will add $10 million to $15 million to the $862 million cost of the first phase of the Expo Line project. The CPUC’s decision on the matter serves as final approval for a settlement reached earlier this year among the Exposition Construction Authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Phase 1 will end in Culver City. That part of the project is set to be completed by the summer of 2012.

Phase 2, to extend the line to Santa Monica, is gearing up now. The final environmental impact report for the project’s $1.5 billion second phase was approved by the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority Board in April. (Read the blog that Zev wrote before that vote here.)

Two firms—Skanska-Rados and URS-Shimmick—currently are working on preliminary engineering for Phase 2, and are competing for the design-build contract that the Expo board is expected to award in February, 2011.

LA Observed recently posted a lively YouTube video, complete with rhythmically pulsing soundtrack, of the terrain that the Expo Line eventually is expected to cover from West Los Angeles to Santa Monica. More than 23,000 viewers have already taken the virtual ride.

Posted 8/4/10