The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) held a breakthrough event to celebrate the completed digging for the first tunnel by the tunnel boring machine (TBM) “Harriet” for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Light Rail Project. The tunnel project includes twin tunnels that will connect the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project’s three underground stations.
The TBM took six months to dig the tunnel, beginning at the future Crenshaw/Expo Station and ending at the Leimert Park Station. Harriet advanced about 60 feet a day through soil and rock under Crenshaw Boulevard.
Metro Board Chair and Duarte City Council Member John Fasana said, “This is one more milestone for this very important link in our fast-growing transit network. It won’t be long until we’re out here celebrating the beginning of rail service in this vital corridor.”
At the event, Metro CEO Phillip Washington announced that Metro and contractor Walsh Shea Corridor Constructors have committed to completing the Crenshaw Line in 2019.
“This agreement provides a partnership framework for Metro and its contractors to work through project changes to deliver projects to the public within the expected, and possibly accelerated, timeline,” stated Washington. “When the Crenshaw/LAX Rail Line opens in 2019, the real winners will be the traveling public as the Metro rail system offers more mobility options to Los Angeles county residents.”
The TBM, which weighs 950 tons, has a diameter of 21½ feet and is 400 feet long, will now be taken apart and moved back to the Expo construction yard at Crenshaw and Exposition Boulevards. There, it will be lowered back underground, reassembled and will begin digging the tunnel for the northbound tracks.
Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board First Vice Chair Eric Garcetti remarked, “After the demise of the streetcars, Los Angeles residents dreamed and fought for years for a return of rail transit to the Crenshaw corridor. That dream is now becoming a reality and we will soon have easy access via transit to some of our city’s oldest neighborhoods and Los Angeles International Airport.”
The light rail line extension will include eight new stations to serve the Crenshaw, Inglewood and LAX communities and accommodations for an additional station at 96th Street that will offer transfers to the future LAX people mover that will serve airport terminals. The $2.058-billion project is funded largely by Measure R approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008.
The Crenshaw/LAX Rail Project will run an 8.5-mile route between the Expo Line and Green Line. Excavation of the three underground stations is completed and construction of the six bridges is underway. Platforms are rising for the at-grade stations at Fairview Heights, Downtown Inglewood and Westchester/Veterans and installation of the overhead power system continues.