Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has launched tunneling works underneath Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea Avenue which will form the first section of the Metro Purple Line extension project.
“This is a major step forward for our Purple Line Extension. When completed, this line will get our riders from the Westside to Downtown and back, helping them to skip the congested east-west corridors along Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards,” Metro Board Chair, Sheila Kuehl, said.
Twin tunnel boring machines (TBMs), named Elsie and Soyeon, will begin by tunneling parallel underground sections between the future Wilshire/La Brea Station and the current Wilshire/Western Purple Line terminus.
Each TBM will simultaneously excavate approximately 60 feet per day (18m) in the twin tunnels over the next two years.
Metro broke ground on the 3.92-mile (6 km) first section of the project in November 2014 that will begin at the existing Wilshire/Western Station and continue to new stations that are being excavated at Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega.
The project has a value of USD 2.82 billion.
The first section of the Purple Line extension is scheduled to be operational in 2023 with the second section to Century City in 2025, and the third and final section to the Westwood/VA Hospital in 2026. When complete, the Purple Line will speed transit riders between downtown L.A. and Westwood in 25 minutes. The metro extension is projected to serve 59,000 riders daily, including 17,000 new riders.
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