Delays won't derail Expo project
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DOWNTOWN — Despite delays and cost overruns during Phase One of the Expo Light Rail project, which is expected to link Santa Monica to Downtown Los Angeles by 2015, City Hall officials and mass transit supporters remain confident the project is on track.
The environmental impact report for the rail line's second phase — the portion that will run from Culver City to Downtown Santa Monica — was released on Friday and is slated to come before the Expo authority's board of directors for a vote Feb. 4. Construction could begin by the end of 2010.
Last week the Los Angeles Times reported the first phase of the project, which was originally supposed to open this summer, has fallen more than a year behind schedule and is running $220 million over budget.
But because the line's two phases are separate projects with separate environmental review processes, delays to the first leg don't necessarily affect the Santa Monica segment, said Mayor Pro Tem Pam O'Connor, who sits on the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority's board of directors.
"It's not like we have to wait until everything in Phase One is done to begin Phase Two," she said.
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"Certainly the design-build contracting method (for the second phase) has been refined based on lessons learned," she said.
Supporters of the line are gearing up for a final push as the second phase environmental impact report heads to the board.
"Elected officials need to see there's public support," said Darrell Clarke, who heads the group Friends 4 Expo.
Clarke, a former planning commissioner, agreed that concerns about the first phase don't have bearing on the Santa Monica section's timeline for completion.
"The second half is about a mile shorter," he said. "It's really simpler."
But Kevin Hughes, the president of the Cheviot Hills Homeowners' Association and a past critic of the Expo Authority's handling of the project, said delays during Phase One could cause transportation leaders to expedite Phase Two, while ignoring community groups' concerns.
"Certainly we would expect to hear the argument, 'Hey there's more pressure on you in Phase Two to get this thing moving'" because of Phase One delays, he said.
Hughes' group has asked the Expo Authority to consider putting the rail line underground in the Century City area, citing traffic and safety concerns.
Maintenance yard update
A land swap designed to aid the Expo line's need for a maintenance yard moved ahead last week, as the Santa Monica Community College District Board of Trustees unanimously decided to allow its president to negotiate a deal with City Hall that would compensate the college for SMC-owned land slated to become the rail yard.
Under the plan, a 2.35-acre lot at Stewart Street and Exposition Boulevard currently being used as a parking lot would be used for the maintenance facility. In exchange, City Hall would give the college a lot of equal value located near SMC's Bundy Campus.
Some neighborhood residents have opposed the idea, claiming the proposed rail yard will be yet another environmental blight in an area already impacted by the I-10 Freeway and a solid waste transfer station.
The final EIR for the second phase of the Expo project includes a plan to build a 100-foot buffer aimed at sheltering homes in the vicinity from the proposed facility.
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Final environmental report issued for pAroposed Expo Line extension
A Final Environmental Impact report for the proposed Expo Line light rail project has been released, and Westside residents have been told that the hoped-for overpasses cannot be provided near several schoolyards.
The proposed passenger train service will mostly run along the old Southern Pacific tracks from Venice at Robertson boulevards to eastern Santa Monica. The tracks will likely shift to Colorado Boulevard to a proposed downtown terminus three blocks from the pier.
Regional transit authorities have already voted to build the train tracks. The earlier, eastern phase of the project is already under construction between Culver City and downtown Los Angeles, and will be running by 2012.
Regional transit authorities have already voted to build the train tracks. The earlier, eastern phase of the project is already under construction between Culver City and downtown Los Angeles, and will be running by 2012.
The EIR is a government-required study of all imaginable impacts that could be caused by extending passenger train service through the area. The public is allowed to comment on it until Feb. 4.
The Exposition Construction Authority will afterward vote on it, in what will effectively be the final
decision on how to build the $314 million project.
In the final version of the EIR, requests from some Westside residents for overpasses at Westwood Boulevard and Overland Avenue were rejected by the study authors, who said having light-rail tracks crossing the arterial streets will meet safety standards. Elementary schools are nearby those grade
crossings, and state regulatory agencies have ordered MTA to add safety equipment at similar crossings near schools in the Crenshaw District.
But planners said an overpass might be needed to lift the light rail tracks over Sepulveda Boulevard and Sawtelle Avenue, two busy roads that parallel the Santa Monica (10) Freeway under the San Diego (405) Freeway interchange. City of Los Angeles planners convinced the Expo Authority that the
heavy traffic that frequently gridlocks there should not be aggravated with trains.
The Sepulveda-Sawtelle bridge would connect to one planned over the Pico-Gateway boulevards intersection, and Sawtelle Avenue would have to be dropped into a shallow trench so the light rail trains could squeeze under the adjacent 405 viaduct.
The study retains several alternatives for later decision, including whether to eliminate 170 commuter parking spaces proposed for the Westwood Boulevard station, another lightning rod for neighborhood opposition. The decision to ban parking along Colorado Boulevard in Santa Monica, and the exact configuration of the downtown terminus have yet to be determined.
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that the first phase of the Expo Line is late and over-budget. But Santa Monica officials said the ballooning cost was the result of overpasses and other features demanded by stakeholders along the tracks, and said Phase Two is not expected to have such problems.
Many Westside residents have bitterly opposed running up to 24 trains per hour through the expensive, leafy neighborhoods along the abandoned railroad tracks. After that route was adopted, they cited the nearby schools and houses and asked that the train be elevated or put into a trench near Westwood Boulevard and Overland Avenue.
But similar requests were turned down for cost reasons in crowded inner-city neighborhoods, and Expo officials say MTA policies on grade separations for light-rail trains show that the street and pedestrian crossings will be safe, and not congested.
The EIR contains evaluations for not building the train and using buses, but rejects that option because it would require 37 buses and create pollution and congestion. An alternate route, sparing Cheviot Hills but using Sepulveda and Venice boulevards, was rejected as costlier than the old Southern Pacific tracks.
The Final Environmental Impact Report was released late Friday, and is available online at www.buildexpo.org .
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