On Wednesday, local elected officials and California Governor Jerry Brown held an official groundbreaking ceremony for a new transit center in Torrance. 

The Torrance Transit Park and Ride Regional Terminal, as the project is formally known, will rise on a triangular patch of land on Crenshaw Boulevard, just south of Del Amo Boulevard.  The facility, as described by the Torrance Transit website, will include:

  • A 15,000-square-foot building with room for small retail uses, ticket sales, real-time arrival information, operator layover space, security, and conference space;
  • Eight bus berths with layover space;
  • A 250-car parking lot with room for expansion to 500 vehicles;
  • A drop-off zone;
  • Information kiosks; and
  • Outdoor bicycle storage.

Frank Webb Architects is designing the transit center, which is scheduled for approximately 12-to-14 months of construction.  Completion is anticipated in mid-2019.

The groundbreaking was coupled with an updated on a planned South Bay extension of the Green Line, which is intended to terminate at the transit center.  The five-mile extension, which does not yet have a defined route, is one of nearly a dozen transit and commuter rail projects to receive significant funding from through SB-1, the state legislation which raised the state's gas tax to pay for new transportation infrastructure.  The gas tax is currently being targeted for repeal through a citizen's ballot initiative that could go before voters in November.