Cost overruns and scheduling delays are plaguing a major project to connect three Los Angeles rail lines, according to revised budget and schedule projections from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
According to the report, relocation of electricity lines and other underground utilities have already used up half of the project’s $92.7 million reserve for unexpected cost increases, a fund that was supposed to last until 2020. The estimated $1.42 billion cost for the 1.9-mile Downtown Regional Connector will grow by an additional $130 million, and the project’s targeted opening date of late 2020 could be delayed by at least six months.
The new Metro analysis was reported in the Los Angeles Times, and comes as Metro considers asking voters for another half-cent tax increase that could raise $120 billion for transportation projects.
When completed, the new line will connect the 7th Street Metro station north of Staples Center to the eastern edge of Little Tokyo, near Union Station. Three new stations will be created in downtown Los Angeles: at 1st Street and Central Avenue, 2nd Street and Broadway, and 2nd and Hope streets.
Tunneling for the project has yet to begin.
“These kinds of stumbles that we’re having here are very common in construction projects, but especially when you’re doing it in a huge business area, in a downtown environment,” Metro spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas told The Times. “It’s not a surprise that we’ve hit some bumps in the road.”
Metro staff noted in the new report that the project’s original budget was “set very early in the process” because the agency was seeking to expedite the approval of federal funding. The Federal Transit Administration has provided $893 million in grants and low-interest loans, covering more than 60 percent of the project’s cost.
In return for the funding assistance, Metro promised that the regional connector would be up and running by May 29, 2021 — a target date that now appears to be in jeopardy.
“We don’t anticipate any issues with the FTA funding,” Tonilas told The Times. “The FTA has a vested interest in the projects that they fund just as much as we do.”
—City News Service