Metro officials broke ground Friday on a project aimed at improving bus speeds and safety for the Orange Line, while also preparing the rapid transit line in the San Fernando Valley for a future conversion to light rail.
The project will install two aerial bridges and stations as well as bike and pedestrian path grade separations at Van Nuys and Sepulveda boulevards, two of the line's busiest crossings.
Metro will also build four-quadrant crossing gates at up to 35 intersections between North Hollywood and Chatsworth, and said it was also installing better traffic signal priority technology for buses to improve travel times along the 18-mile corridor.
The project's goal is to achieve a 20 percent reduction in bus travel times, increase ridership capacity by 39 percent and "virtually eliminate" the potential for vehicle intrusions onto the busway while improving safety.
"The Metro Orange Line accommodates the highest number of bus riders in the San Fernando Valley," said Los Angeles City Council Member and Metro Board Member Paul Krekorian, whose district includes the North Hollywood area where the line begins. "This and other planned Valley transit improvements will go a long way toward achieving the kind of integrated public transit system that Valley residents overwhelmingly approved as part of Measure M."
The project is estimated to cost between $320 to $393 million and is funded by Los Angeles County's Measure M sales tax. Metro also said that $75 million of the project cost has been made available by SB-1, the state's gas tax and vehicle fee transportation funding program.
The project is scheduled to be completed by 2025 as part of Metro's Twenty-Eight by `28 list of projects the agency wants to complete before the arrival of the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
"We are now delivering on our agency's promise to dramatically improve transit services, whether you're traveling in the San Fernando Valley or throughout Los Angeles County," Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington said. "In doing so, we are leveraging both local and state funding to build the Valley's transit future as quickly as possible."
