Metro's board of directors voted last week to move forward with plans to pursue an underground alignment for the Southeast Gateway Line. 

Conceptual rendering of Alameda Street without a rail viaductSolutions Alameda

The motion from Los Angeles County Supervisors and Metro board member Hilda Solis directs staff to study an underground alignment, identifying an enhanced infrastructure financing district as a means to facilitate the proposed subway. The move was lauded by members of the Solutions Alameda Coalition, which is identified as a group of Downtown stakeholders who favor an underground alignment for the light rail line's second phase in lieu of elevated tracks.

“Today’s vote is a watershed moment for Downtown Los Angeles and the entire region,” said Mark Falcone, the chair of the Solutions Alameda Coalition and chief executive officer of development firm Continuum Partners. “Supervisor Solis and the Metro Board have shown extraordinary leadership and commitment to a vision of infrastructure that lifts up communities. Undergrounding the Southeast Gateway Line is not just good transit policy — it’s a statement about who we value and where we’re going as a region.”

Conceptual rendering of Alameda Street with a rail viaductSolutions Alameda

Statements of support were also issued by Amy Turk, the chief executive officer of the Downtown Women’s' Center, and Ernesto Medrano, the executive secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council.

Enhanced infrastructure financing districts have been pitched as a means to deliver several large-scale transportation projects across the region, most notably the second phase of the K Line's northern extension to Hollywood, where a chasm exists between the approximately $2.23 billion in local tax dollars identified for the project and estimated price tags ranging from $11 billion to $14.8 billion.

Route of the Southeast Gateway LineMetro

 

The Southeast Gateway Line, which will eventually stretch more than 19 miles between Union Station in Downtown and Pioneer Boulevard in the City of Artesia, also faces a daunting funding shortfall. While more than $2 billion in funding has been identified for the project's first phase between the A Line's Slauson Station and Artesia, the ultimate cost of the initial 14.5 miles of track is expected to cost $5 billion. The full project, if built with a subway below Alameda Street in Downtown Los Angeles, could cost as much a $7.75 billion.

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