Subway To Sea (Through WeHo) Making Progress (Source: Wehonews.com)

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Subway To Sea (Through WeHo) Making Progress

Monday, August 31, 2009 – By WeHo News Staff, West Hollywood

West Hollywood, California (Monday, August 31, 2009) - As more exploratory drilling takes place here in West Hollywood last night and again tonight, plans move apace to build the Subway to the Sea with a West Hollywood spur that would join the Red Line and Purple Line in what most are calling a “Pink Line.”

Last month five scoping meetings took place, one of them in WeHo, where people affected by the plans gathered to express concerns and to offer ideas on how to complete the $7 - $11 billion extension of the current Purple Line.

Regional representative for the Westside Subway Extension, Jody Litvak and chief planner David Mieger outlined the process so far and explained some major changes that came up since the last round of public meetings.

Chief on that list of changes would be not placing a subway stop on La Brea at Santa Monica Boulevard.

Because of the turn-radius need for a stop there, the platform would have to be place four to five blocks to the east, in Los Angeles.

Ms. Litvak said, “There’s more support for a station between La Cienega and San Vicente Boulevard, say for example at City Hall in the center of town,” she said.

That said, there remains avid support for a Beverly Center/Cedars-Sinai stop, but the Pink Line complicates a Beverly Hills preference for a La Cienega station, she explained, but there is also strong support from the public wants a junction station at La Cienega, not Beverly Drive.

However, this would require the new platform to be pushed between La Cienega and Robertson. Neither Metro nor Beverly Hills care for a Robertson station, Ms. Litvak said.

She said that they continue to study options, but that a La Cienega/SMB station would likely be between La Cienega and Robertson.

Ms. Litvak went into detail about the construction methods that will be used for building the subway.

Tunneling will be deep-bore, and she says Metro will use a new generation of tunnel-boring machines that helps maintain earth pressure and reduce subsidence.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) will perform exploratory drilling as part of the planning and Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Westside Subway Extension in West Hollywood on Sunday, August 30, 2009 from 9 p.m. through Monday, August 31, 2009 at 6 a.m. at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Sweetzer Avenue.

During this process, soil samples will be removed and sent to the lab for analysis in order to assess the conditions below the ground surface and prepare the necessary plans for the Proposed Westside Subway Extension.

The next updates will further refine public comment and start finding concepts for station portals.