At its monthly “Lunch with Us” webinar on July 7, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) provided updates on the Purple Line Extension subway project. On Tuesday, with tunnelling work completed for section one of the Purple Line, Metro crews began removing and disassembling the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) from the Wilshire/La Cienega Station. Due to the size of the TBM’s, the removal process is estimated to continue for about three months, with the full closure of North Gale Drive at Wilshire Boulevard in place from 6 a.m. until midnight on weekdays and weekends. Left turns will also be restricted from Wilshire onto Gale.
“We are completed with excavation, and we’re just beginning with our station structure,” Yvette Ximenez, a project manager with Metro, said regarding the Wilshire/Rodeo station. “We’re on track to open the station in 2025.” Much of the construction is being done at the entrance of the station, located at South Reeves Drive and Wilshire Boulevard, where contractors are working below ground seven days a week.
“We also are having material delivered to us, as well as equipment,” Ximenez added. “We’re having ongoing concrete pours and those will be mostly daily from Wilshire Boulevard for the foreseeable future.”
During peak traffic hours, from 7- 9 a.m. and 4-8:15 p.m., Wilshire Boulevard will remain open with three lanes in each direction between El Camino Drive and Crescent Drive. Between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., the same stretch of Wilshire may be reduced to two lanes in each direction, and from 8:15 p.m. to 7 a.m., lanes may be reduced to one in each direction.
After successfully removing the K-rail last month on Wilshire from Canon Drive to Beverly Drive, Metro is working on the street restoration. “We’ve opened up the street again,” Ximenez said. We’ve done the restriping, installed the traffic signals as well as restored the crosswalks.” According to Metro, the only crosswalk that needed to be restored was the crosswalk at Wilshire and North Canon Drive. “Now that we’ve completed with excavation, we’re in the thick of our station construction which will be ongoing through 2024.”
The next steps for Metro work will be done on the exterior walls to provide support for the structure of the station, and continued installation of geotechnical instruments along the entire tunnel alignment. The instruments will monitor ground movement, settlement, and other geological conditions and be installed within the public right of way or privately owned properties. On weekdays, work hours on Wilshire Boulevard will be from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and off Wilshire will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
To learn more, visit https://www.metro.net/projects/westside/. The next Metro Purple Line Extension community meeting will be on Aug. 4 at noon.
