METRO: Purple Line and Sepulveda Corridor Transit Project Update

On Thursday, the BAA attended METRO’s community meeting to discuss Section 3 of the Purple Line subway that will have two location stops: Westwood UCLA and Westwood VA. A link to the presentation is at the end of this post.

The Sepulveda Corridor Transit Project, which concerns Bel-Air residents because of the four scenarios that require tunneling beneath Bel-Air, is still in its pre-environmental study phase so there is not much to update the community at this time.

In the meantime, here is some of the information METRO discussed on the Purple Line Section 3 Westwood area:

TRAFFIC IMPACTS

Metro Construction Relations provided a pre-construction update for the Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA Stations. Pre-construction activities for the Westwood/UCLA Station includes advance utility relocation and end-wall piling, while activities for the Westwood/VA Hospital Station includes utility investigations and electrical work to power the tunnel boring machines that will be digging the Westwood VA to Century City tunnels.

Advance utility relocation and electrical vault installations are currently underway on Wilshire Boulevard. Work is done during the nighttime hours of 9PM and 6AM.

Work on the UCLA Westwood station will begin Spring 2020. At this time end-wall piling construction will commence. This work will require two lanes of Wilshire Boulevard for staging and work is expected to last approximately five months. Concrete K-rail barriers will be installed to protect the workers.

The Westwood VA station will begin electrical utilities relocation this Spring and the work will create traffic impacts at Ohio and Federal avenues. In June work will expand to Purdue and Ohio avenues. Work hours will be 6AM to 4PM on weekdays, and 8AM to 4PM on weekends.

Tunneling will begin with two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) with one at the VA location to burrow toward Century City at Constellation and Avenue of the Stars. The boring is expected to take 1 to 1-1/2 years to complete. The projected completion of Section 3 is expected to be in January 2027.

EASEMENT ACQUISITION

The tunnels will be two twin tunnel tracks that run east and west. There will be a 10 foot distance between the tunnels and 5 feet out of either side that is encased in a box structure. If the box goes within 10 feet of a residential property, METRO is to get a permanent underground easement. Affected Westwood residents are entitled to compensation to get that permanent underground easement. METRO had a representative from their Real Property Management & Development department to answer questions from concerned Westwood homeowners regarding the easement acquisition process. METRO is expected to begin easement acquisition negotiations for the affected Westwood residents this summer.

There will be no parking lot availability at the UCLA Westwood Station and only a drop-off lot at the Westwood VA Station.

The Sepulveda Corridor Transit segment will connect with the UCLA/Westwood Station.

To see METRO’s presentation slides that have more information, click here.