Los Angeles to open subway extension May 8

Dive Brief:

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will open a 3.92-mile extension of its D Line subway on May 8.
The route, which begins at Los Angeles Union Station in downtown LA, will add three stations and terminate at La Cienega Boulevard. Total travel time between the two stations is estimated to be 21 minutes for the 9-mile trip.
Two additional extensions are projected to open in 2027, reaching Beverly Hills; Century City; the University of California, Los Angeles and the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.

Dive Insight:

The D Line extension is one of LA Metro’s projects scheduled for completion by 2028, in time for Los Angeles to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The soon-to-open extension will reach “museum row,” home to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Petersen Automotive Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits.

The transit agency estimates that there will be 16,200 weekday boardings when the new section opens, according to an LA Metro spokesperson. The project is budgeted at $3.7 billion, and is funded by a local sales tax, federal grants and a $749.3 million Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Tunneling for all three sections was completed two years ago. The most difficult section was in the La Brea area, where Ice Age mammoths and sloths became trapped in molten asphalt. Crews encountered tar sands, fossils and archaeological artifacts, said Tim Lindholm, chief program management officer for LA Metro. “From just an underground construction perspective, it was an extremely challenging project,” he said.

LA Metro contractors used a 400-foot-long, 21-foot-diameter tunnel-boring machine to excavate about 40 to 60 feet per day. As the machines moved forward, they lined the tunnel with precast concrete segments bolted together to form secure rings, preventing water- and gas-related risks.

Box-shaped excavations prepared the sites for the construction of the underground stations, which were then covered over, Lindhom explained. All station boxes for the remaining extensions have been dug out, he said.

Wall art in colors of yellow, green purple and blue behind an underground train platform and escalator. — Public art adorns each of the new stations on LA Metro's D Line.

Courtesy of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Trains are already running through the section that will open next month, Lindholm said, “mimicking the everyday schedule” without passengers. Testing is complete, and the train and rail operators have completed training. “It's a very, very exciting time,” he said.

Each of the new stations includes public art. “We have a very thriving art community here,” Lindholm said.

LA Metro recently announced it would build a 14-mile automated subway line in the Sepulveda corridor. The transit agency also plans to extend the K Line south from Redondo Beach to the Torrance Transit Center and north to Hollywood.