MTA Board to Vote On $1.7 Billion Light Rail Project

MTA Board to Vote On $1.7 Billion Light Rail Project

Project will Generate 7,800 jobs, 4,400 in Construction.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board of Directors will vote on Thursday on a staff recommendation to build a light rail through the 8.5-square-mile Crenshaw to Los Angeles International Airport Corridor. A yes vote would reject a proposed rapid bus alternative. Voting will take place December 10 at 9:30 a.m. at the MTA Board Room, One Gateway Plaza, in Los Angeles.

"The $1.7 billion investment will provide congestion relief, improve air quality and serve as economic catalyst," said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who as an MTA director was successful moving up the timeline for the project from 2029 to sometime between 2016 and 2018.

According to MTA staff projections, the light rail alternative will generate 7,800 jobs, more than twice as many as the bus rapid transit alternative. About 4,400 jobs will be in construction. The project will traverse the cities of Los Angeles, Inglewood, Hawthorne, and El Segundo, as well as unincorporated areas of the County and Los Angeles International Airport.

The light rail would be the first alternative transportation project to relieve congestion on the 405 Freeway and other north-south arteries in the western portion of Los Angeles County and provide a clean, efficient mode of transportation to LAX.