Despite expressing strong concerns about cost overruns, the LA Metro board voted to spend an additional $134 million on construction of the second phase of the Purple (D Line) subway extension beneath Century City and Beverly Hills.
The 10-0 board vote on Thursday, July 27, gives the green light to Metro to increase the cost for this section from $2.44 billion to $2.57 billion. It allows Metro and its contractors to continue building westerly from the Miracle Mile, beneath some of the most expensive real estate in Los Angeles County.
The 9-mile, $9.5 billion D Line extension project, under construction since 2014, is being built in three sections extending from Koreatown at Wilshire and Western to the Westwood/VA station, the western terminus. Phase one, stretching from Wilshire and Western about 4 miles to Wilshire and La Cienega, is expected to be completed in 2024.
The second phase extends about 2.6 miles to Century City/Constellation, with completion expected in 2025, and the third phase extends to the West Los Angeles VA campus, with expected completion in 2027.
Once called the Westside Subway Extension or the “Subway to the Sea,” the Purple Line subway extension would be the first underground rail line connecting downtown Los Angeles with the Westside, giving travelers a car-less option to driving on busy Wilshire Avenue.
But the second phase has cost more due to several reasons reported by Metro:
• The city of Beverly Hills required an additional set of conditions, costing about $44 million in fees the city paid to third-party consultants, which must be reimbursed by Metro
• Higher cost of land purchases used for stations
• Reconfiguring the Century City/Constellation Station by changing the location of the entrance
• A change to new power sources because those identified in 2015 at the start of the project were considered no longer adequate by Southern California Edison
•…
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