Metro commits additional $134M for Purple Line extension project

Metro’s Board of Directors Thursday approved an additional $134 million for its Purple (D Line) Extension Transit Project while expressing some concern on how the costs might impact other transportation projects.

Metro officials said they needed more funding for the second section of the project — which is the construction and development of the Wilshire/Rodeo and Century City/Constellation stations — due to costs related to real estate acquisitions, differing site conditions during advanced utility relocations and changes to permanent power sources.

The transit agency will allocate monies for the project from the following sources:

— Approximately $3.4 million from New Starts, a grant from the Federal Transit Administration; and

— Approximately $130.6 million from Measure R, a half-cent sales tax approved by L.A. County voters in 2008 to fund transportation projects and improvements.

The Purple (D Line) Extension Transit Project began construction in 2019, and will add seven new subway stations, connecting downtown L.A. to the Westside.

The first section of the project — the Wilshire/La Brea Station, Wilshire/Fairfax Station and Wilshire/LA Cienega Station — is slated to open in 2024, and cost approximately $3.5 billion .The second section is slated for completion in 2025.

The third section — Westwood/UCLA Station and Westwood/VA Hospital Station — is slated for completion in 2027, and cost approximately $3.7 million.

In total, the overall extension of the line from Koreatown area to the VA campus is estimated at $9.8 billion, with federal grants covering roughly half the cost.

With the Board’s approval, section two has now increased from $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion. Metro officials emphasized they would do their best to mitigate further costs, but may come back to the Board if necessary.

Metro officials noted the project has 20 open claims and 10 notices of intent to claim. Project staff will continue to assess and manage ongoing risks to control costs.

The request for the $134 million came before the agency’s Construction Committee, where Director and L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who chairs the committee, moved to bring the item to the Board.

“As a committee, all of us have been trying so hard to get a handle on, particularly, cost overruns,” Hahn said. “This alarmed me a bit because it was a halfway completed project.”

“And it’s already spent most of the contingencies. It already had an overrun of $240 million, which was the first time I’d heard that in committee,” she added.

Hahn further added that the Board is “concerned about being fiscally prudent, and one less dollar that goes into the project means a lot of other things that are on the docket are going to be in jeopardy.”

While some members of the Board echoed Hahn’s concerns, Director and Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval reminded his colleagues that “the decision was made by the Board a long time ago to build this project.”

“It’s a subway project going through a very dense area and going I would argue to some of the wealthiest communities in Los Angeles County,” Sandoval said. “As a consequence of making that decision, there are going to be costs associated with burrowing through underground.”

Director and Supervisor Kathryn Barger said that the agency is seeing “overruns on almost all our projects.”

“I think it’s important, definitely, that at some point, we do the risk analysis, or contingency plan. It’d be important for us to understand what the tipping point is going to be based on the projects that are coming forward because we’ve got other projects that are over budget right now,” Barger said.

The Board approved the additional $134 million for the Purple Extension Transit Project in a 10-0 vote, with directors Fernando Dutra, Paul Krekorian and Ara Najarian absent from Thursday’s meeting.

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