Underground Connector Up for Metro OK (Source: blogdowntown)

Link: Underground Connector Up for Metro OK :: blogdowntown

Underground Connector Up for Metro OK
By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, February 02, 2010, at 01:18PM

Regional Connector Render: 2nd Street Looking West Metro

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — A popular plan to take Metro's proposed Regional Connector light rail link under the intersection of 1st and Alameda will be officially considered by the agency's planning committee this month.

First presented to the Little Tokyo community in November, the underground option must be formally added to the two currently being studied in the project's environmental documents.

The project would link the two pieces of the existing light rail network, bridging the gap between the 7th / Metro terminus used by the Blue and Expo lines with the Gold Line's Little Tokyo / Arts District station.

Two plans currently under consideration both involve at-grade links to the existing Gold Line tracks, an option that the community has been consistently against since the project outreach first started in late 2007.

The new alternative could add up to $200 million onto the project's price tag, which would then total roughly $1 billion.

Project staff will present the new option to the Planning and Programming committee on February 17. The Metro board will officially select a "Locally Preferred Alternative" for the project this summer.