Executive Summary January 2009
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority LOS ANGELES WESTSIDE EXTENSION TRANSIT CORRIDOR ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS STUDY > Executive Summary January 2009 Introduction three years from 2003 to 2006 and is now being The Metro Westside Extension has been an developed as a separate project. integral element of local, regional, and federal transportation planning since the early 1980s. In October 2005, at the request of Metro and Extending westward from the Los Angeles Cen- the City of Los Angeles, the American Public tral Business District (CBD), the Westside Exten- Transportation Association (APTA) organized sion has been the subject of in-depth technical a Peer Review Panel of experts to reconsider studies and extensive community involvement the feasibility of tunneling along the federally during this period. Ultimately, the transit invest- precluded Wilshire Boulevard segment of the ment has been envisioned to extend toward Westside Corridor. As a result of this review Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood (UCLA), (which concluded that tunnels can be safely con- West Los Angeles, and Santa Monica. structed and operated in the Wilshire Boulevard corridor), legislation was approved in Congress In the early 1990s, plans were underway to repealing the federal prohibition on subway con- extend the Metro Red Line to the west. Con- struction along Wilshire Boulevard in December struction was already underway on the Metro 2007. Red Line from Union Station to Westlake/Mac- Arthur Park, to Wilshire/Western Station, and In July 2006, the Metro Board of Directors to Hollywood/Vine Station. The new planning authorized an Alternatives Analysis (AA) Study effort to avoid the federally prohibited methane for all reasonable fixed-guideway transit alterna- gas hazard zone—a zone that was designated tives, including the previously excluded subway in 1985 after naturally occurring methane gas alternatives, for the portion of the Westside Cor- caused a fire in the Fairfax District—examined ridor north of the Exposition Corridor.
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