The first $65,000 in checks will go out from Metro to small businesses losing business because of tunneling in front of their shops, Metro said Saturday.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas were scheduled to hand out the first checks at a photo op Monday morning, where construction of the Wilshire Boulevard subway is tearing things up near the La Brea Tar Pits.
About $10 million per year in public funds will be disbursed by the transit agency as it tries to lessen the nuisance, dirt and obstacles at several major digs in Los Angeles.
The MTA is simultaneously doing three big digs: along the Purple Line extension on the Miracle Mile section of Wilshire, on the crosstown light rail connector downtown and at Little Tokyo, and along Crenshaw Boulevard near Baldwin Hills and at Leimert Park.
The big simultaneous excavations are unprecedented by a public transit agency, Metro officials said. The MTA board has voted up to $10 million per year for its Metro Business Interruption Fund.
The BIF is “an unprecedented program for public construction projects in the United States and represents another way Metro is helping small businesses during major construction,” Metro officials said.
The checks will be handed out at 10 a.m. Monday at the Metro construction yard near the La Brea Tar Pits, at Wilshire Boulevard at Ogden Drive.
—City News Service