Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) announced that after six months of digging, Harriet, the tunnel boring machine (TBM), has arrived at the Leimert Park Station to complete the first of the twin tunnels that will connect the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project’s three underground stations.
“This is one more milestone for this very important link in our fast-growing transit network,” said Metro Board Chair and Duarte City Council Member John Fasana. “It won’t be long until we’re out here celebrating the beginning of rail service in this vital corridor.”
Harriet was lowered into the ground under the future Crenshaw/Expo Station last winter and began digging to the south in April. In August, Harriet reached the Martin Luther King Jr. Station and then began excavating the last segment of the one-mile tunnel in September.
“For decades, the thought of a rail stop at the center of African American culture in Los Angeles was no more than a dream," said Mark Ridley-Thomas, L.A. County supervisor and Metro Board member. "Today, as Harriet blazes a path to what will someday become Leimert Park Station, we can finally celebrate that dream becoming reality."
After the event the TBM will be taken apart and hauled back to the Expo construction yard at Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards. Harriet will then be lowered back underground and reassembled and then will begin digging the tunnel for the northbound tracks.
“After the demise of the streetcars, Los Angeles residents dreamed and fought for years for a return of rail transit to the Crenshaw corridor,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Metro Board first vice chair. “That dream is now becoming a reality and we will soon have easy access via transit to some of our city’s oldest neighborhoods and Los Angeles International Airport.”
The $2.058-billion project is funded largely by Measure R approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008. The light rail line will include eight new stations to serve the Crenshaw, Inglewood and LAX communities and accommodations for an additional station at 96th Street that will offer easy rail and bus transfers to the future LAX people mover that will serve airport terminals.
"It is our hope that South Los Angeles residents are very proud of the construction of the Crenshaw/LAX light-rail line,” said Metro Board member Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker. “We can’t wait to get on the train and travel to all corners of this great region and feel that we too belong to the transit revolution that Metro is leading.”
At the event TBM breakthrough event, Metro CEO Phillip Washington announced that Metro and contractor Walsh Shea Corridor Constructors have committed to completing the Crenshaw Line in 2019.
“This agreement provides a partnership framework for Metro and its contractors to work through project changes to deliver projects to the public within the expected, and possibly accelerated, timeline,” said Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington. “When the Crenshaw/LAX Rail Line opens in 2019, the real winners will be the traveling public as the Metro rail system offers more mobility options to Los Angeles county residents.”
The TBM was named after Harriet Tubman, the African-American abolitionist and humanitarian who helped slaves escape the South using a network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. A contest was held among area students to name the TBM; it was won by Calvin Mosley, a student at City Honors High School in Inglewood.
The TBM weighs 950 tons, has a diameter of 21½ feet and is 400 feet long. Harriet advanced about 60 feet a day through soil and rock under Crenshaw Boulevard.
Work on the Crenshaw/LAX Rail Project continues to advance along the rail line’s 8.5-mile route between the Expo Line and Green Line. Excavation of the three underground stations is completed. Construction of the six bridges is underway. Platforms are rising for the at-grade stations at Fairview Heights, Downtown Inglewood and Westchester/Veterans and installation of the overhead power system continues.
