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The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) recently achieved several milestones in its effort to build three new light-rail lines by 2014.

The agency's September report shows overall project construction is more than 61 percent completed, with station and finishing work "coming along at a very rapid pace," METRO officials said in a prepared statement issued yesterday.

The first steel structural columns for the new station canopy have been installed at the East End/Green Line Lockwood/Eastwood Station. Frames will support station glass roofs, artwork, signage and lighting. Utility relocations are 90 percent to 99 percent completed on all three lines; road paving is 79 percent or more finished across the projects; and the guideway for rail cars is more than halfway done, they said.

"Thanks to tremendous effort, coordination and teamwork, Houston's light-rail expansion project moves forward daily, meeting and exceeding deadlines and goals," said David Couch, METRO's senior vice president of capital programs.

When completed, METRORail will operate 22.7 miles of light rail, including the additional 15 miles.

METRORail stations now or soon to be under construction include the Northline Transit Center/HCC, Cavalcade, and Lindale on the North Line (Red); Lockwood/Eastwood, Ea/Do Stadium and Coffee Plant/Second Ward on the East End Line (Green); and Leeland/Third Ward on the Southeast Line (Purple).