After more than 40 years of waiting and over 10 years of construction, residents and businesses in L.A.’s Mid-Wilshire and Miracle Mile districts are finally getting a subway.
Late last month, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the first phase of the Metro D Line subway under Wilshire Boulevard from Western Avenue to La Cienega Boulevard will open on May 8, just days after the opening of the new David Geffen Galleries at the nearby Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The nearly 4-mile segment – with a budget of up to $3.7 billion – contains three new stations: Wilshire/La Brea Avenue, Wilshire/Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire/La Cienega.
The Wilshire/La Brea station is close to the El Rey Theatre, while the Wilshire/Fairfax station is closest to LACMA, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum and the Petersen Automotive Museum. And the Wilshire/La Cienega station is near the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills and La Cienega Boulevard’s Restaurant Row.
The construction team consists of three main contractors: Stockholm, Sweden-based Skanska, Evansville, Indiana-based Traylor Bros. and Walnut based JF Shea Construction.
The segment is part of the 9-mile D-Line extension that will eventually run all the way out through Westwood to the Veterans Administration property on the west side of the 405 Freeway. The other two segments, expected to open next year, are being built by the joint venture contractor team of Sylmar-based Tutor Perini Corp. and Torrington, Connecticut-based O&G Industries. Their combined cost is now put at $6.2 billion.
Segment 1 wait
Plans for a subway under Wilshire Boulevard through the Mid-Wilshire and Miracle Mile districts were first drawn up in the early 1980s.
But in 1985, a huge methane gas explosion below the Ross Dress for Less store across from the Original Farmer’s Market prompted concerns about the potential for future methane gas explosions in the entire region surrounding the La Brea Tar Pits and plans for rail through the area were derailed. U.S. Congress even passed a ban on any federal funds being used for tunneling in the area.
That ban was not overturned until 2007.
