Monterey Park gets Gold Line extension - Whittier Daily News
Monterey Park gets Gold Line extension
By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/27/2009 07:19:48 PM PDT
A $899 million, six-mile light rail extension from Downtown Los Angeles to Monterey Park is nearing completion, officials said Thursday.
The project, originally scheduled to be completed this summer, is now expected to be finished before the end of the year, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Jose Ubaldo.
"We're doing some safety tests and fixing a few problems," said Ubaldo.
The project is under budget and the completion date should be announced within the next few weeks, he said.
The MTA is running trains to test the line, he said.
Officials hoped to open the line this summer, but a contractual deadline gives the agency until December.
Michael Cano, the transportation deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, said the summer deadline was always overly optimistic.
"The timeline was always kind of for December, and at some point they moved it up," said Cano. "They've had some issues, but nothing serious."
The six-mile extension will run from Union Station through Boyle Heights and to Monterey Park, ending at 3rd Street and Atlantic Boulevard, just south of the 10 Freeway. At Union Station it will connect with the Gold Line Foothill track that runs to Pasadena.
Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, the head of the Assembly's Transportation Committee, said he expected the line to have a big impact on his district.
"It's taken a long time to go six miles, but we are very grateful this is going to get done," said Eng. "It's going to connect us to our jobs and our schools."
Eng is also hoping that the line will eventually run further through his district along the 60 Freeway, through Monterey Park, Rosemead and South El Monte, and out to the edge of Industry. Routes through Whittier also are being considered.
There is funding for a project extending the line further in Measure R, the half-cent sales tax passed by county voters in November, though the project is not scheduled to be completed until 2037.
dan.abendschein@sgvn.com
(626) 962-8811, Ext. 4451
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