advertisement

---

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (LACMTA) board recently approved the addition of a new underground light-rail alternative beneath Little Tokyo to the Regional Connector Transit Corridor study that’s under environmental review. The Regional Connector would complete a nearly two-mile transit gap between the Metro Gold, Blue and future Expo lines through downtown Los Angeles.

During scoping and working group meetings, Little Tokyo community members opposed a grade crossing at First and Alameda Streets that they believed would disrupt street activity in the historic area. Projected to cost between $200 million and $300 million, the new alternative proposes two variations of an underground crossing at the intersection to keep trains grade separated and the addition of an underground station. Portals would be built on both streets to enable trains to surface and connect with the existing Metro Gold Line.

A project team that’s preparing a draft environmental impact study/report now will conduct technical studies to determine the alternative’s costs, impacts and benefits. LACMTA plans to present the board a locally preferred alternative for final environmental review later this year.

If funding is obtained through a combination of local, state and federal sources, the project could break ground in 2014 and be completed in 2018 or 2019.