LACMTA staff recommends awarding $1.6 billion Purple Line extension pact to STS joint venture

Yesterday, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (LACMTA) staff recommended awarding a $1.64 billion contract to design and build a 3.9-mile extension of the Metro Purple Line subway to Skanska, Traylor Bros. and J.F. Shea, a Joint Venture (STS).

The contract for the subway extension's first phase includes building twin subway tunnels and three new underground stations at Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega. It also includes train control and signals, communications, traction power supply and distribution, and fare collection systems that would be integrated with the existing Metro Rail system.

Construction could begin later this year, depending on when the contract is awarded. The contract requires completion in October 2024; the joint venture proposes completing it about 300 days earlier.

All three of the joint venture firms have worked or are working on LACMTA rail projects. Skanska is building the Expo light-rail extension from Culver City to Santa Monica, scheduled to open in early 2016. The company also worked on the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension from Pasadena to Azusa, also scheduled to open in 2016. Skanska and Traylor Bros. are building the Regional Connector, a 1.9-mile underground light-rail project in downtown Los Angeles that will connect the Metro Blue, Gold and Expo lines. And Shea is part of a joint venture building the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project, which will connect the Metro Expo and Green light-rail lines in the Crenshaw and Inglewood corridors.

The board's construction committee will review the staff recommendation on July 17.

Two other construction phases entailing separate design/build contracts eventually will extend the Purple Line subway westward for nearly nine miles.