From Los Angeles Downtown News:
Underground Option Frontrunner for Regional Connector
Draft Environmental Report Released Today
by Ryan Vaillancourt, Staff Writer
Published: Friday, September 3, 2010 12:50 PM PDT
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority staff prefers an all-underground alignment for the two-mile Regional Connector transit link.
That’s the message in the draft environmental impact report on the project, released by Metro today. The report analyzes impacts and mitigation measures associated with three alignment options, but places the all-underground option as the frontrunner.
“Typically you don’t identify a staff-preferred alternative in a draft environmental document, but due to fact that the community played such a large role in development of the [underground] alternative, I thought that it would be appropriate to recognize all of their hard work,” said project manager Dolores Roybal Saltarelli.
The $1.2 billion connector would add two miles of new subway track that would link Little Tokyo with Seventh Street Metro Center and allow passengers to travel from Pasadena to Long Beach, or from East L.A. to Culver City, without transferring. It would add four new subway stations, at Fifth and Flower streets; Second and Flower streets; Second Street, between Spring Street and Broadway; and at First and Alameda (see rendering). But Metro says in the report that it may need to cut costs, in which case the agency says eliminating the Financial District station at Fifth and Flower streets would be a consideration.
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