The Purple Line Westside Extension is on the verge of having a designer and builder.
In less than three weeks, the Metro board will be voting on whom to award the design-build contract for the 3.9-mile Purple Line extension from Koreatown toward Beverly Hills. The Metro staff made a recommendation July 7 of who the board should select for the $1.636 billion design-build contract: Skanska, Traylor Bros., and J.F. Shea, a Joint Venture (STS).
Once the Westside Extension is complete, the Metro Purple Line will run from Wilshire and Western in Koreatown to Wilshire and La Cienega in Beverly Hills.
Come July 24, the Metro board will review its staff’s recommendation and vote on whether to award the design-build contract to the joint venture of Skanska, Traylor Bros., and J.F. Shea.
According to Metro, the Board’s Construction Committee will review the recommendation on July 17.
Arriving to the point where the Metro board would look at who would be awarded the design-build contract was a two-year process.
If the joint venture is ultimately approved later this month, plans for the 3.9-mile Purple Line Extension project include the building of what Metro describes as “twin subway tunnels” between Koreatown and Beverly Hills. The extension will include three underground strops: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega.
All the fixings will also be included in the underground subway, including train controls, signals, power supply and distribution, and fare collection systems.
Metro expects construction to begin later this year, though the exact start date will be determined once the design-build contract is awarded.
The first phase of the Purple Line extension is contractually obligated to be completed by October 2024, though Metro stated that the contractors “have proposed an early completion schedule saving 300 calendar days.”
If selected, the Purple Line project will not be the first Metro-themed rodeo for the trio of Skanska, Traylor Bros., and Shea.
Traylor Bros. has done several tunneling projects in the past, including work on Metro’s Gold Line Eastside project connecting Downtown Los Angeles to East Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Skanska is currently working on the second phase of the Expo Line connecting Culver City to Santa Monica.
Skanska and Traylor Bros. are also jointly working together on the “Regional Connector” in Downtown Los Angeles, an underground rail project connecting the Metro Blue, Gold and Expo lines.
Finally, Shea is involved in a joint venture bringing the Crenshaw/LAX Line to life.
Funding for the Purple Line Westside Extension comes from Measure R, the City of Los Angeles, federal grants, and low-interest loans.
Once the first phase of the extension is complete in 2024, Metro will move ahead with plans to bring the Purple Line to Century City. The final phase will ultimately bring the Purple Line to its planned terminus near the Veterans Affairs facility in Westwood.
In all, seven news stations will be added to the Purple Line between Koreatown and Westwood.
