THE LA Metro is beginning the environmental review phase for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project, which will build a heavy rail line or monorail between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside in Los Angeles. A second phase will eventually be built to LAX.   

The deadline is 11/02/2022 to provide input on scoping for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project.  Scoping is the first phase of the environmental study that is evaluating rail alternatives linking the San Fernando Valley and Westside providing a fast, reliable alternative to slogging through traffic.   

Six alternatives are being studied for this project and the followings include underground sections: 

• Alternative 3: 16.2 miles of automated monorail with aerial segment along the 405 corridor, a 3.3 miles underground segment between Wilshire and Getty Center, then entirely aerial along the 405 and Van Nuys Metrolink Line railroad tracks.  One of the 8 stations, underground. 
• Alternative 4: 14 miles heavy rail with underground segment between the E Line and a portal south of Ventura Blvd in the San Fernando Valley and aerial alignment generally along Sepulveda Blvd in the San Fernando Valley. Four of the 8 stations, underground. 
• Alternative 5: 14 miles heavy rail with underground segment along Sepulveda Boulevard and an aerial stretch along the Metrolink Ventura County Line tracks in the San Fernando Valley.  It’s similar to Alternative 4 except the alignment along Sepulveda Blvd is also underground.Seven of the 8 stations, underground. 
• Alternative 6: 14.6 miles heavy rail entirely underground including along Van Nuys Blvd in the San Fernando Valley and with a southern terminus station on Bundy Drive next to the E Line on the Westside. Seven underground stations.  

Scoping is your opportunity to comment on the alternatives, their routes, the destinations they would serve, benefits and costs, impacts, mitigations and other issues that may be important to you for consideration.  

In March, the Metro Board awarded the contracts to two teams to do pre-development (PDA) work on two different potential types of transit the project.  

• LA SkyRail Express was awarded a EUR 56.31 million (USD63.6-million) contract to further develop its proposed monorail concept that would be an aerial alignment primarily within the I-405 right-of-way between the Valley and Westside. Proposed travel times via monorail are estimated at 24 minutes.  The LA SkyRail Express team’s baseline proposal cost for building the monorail concept is EUR5.40 bn (USD6.1 bn). It is developing the proposed monorail alternatives 1 through 3 listed above. 

• Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners – Bechtel was awarded a EUR 61.91 million (USD69.9-million) contract to further develop its proposed heavy rail transit solution concept. More than 60 % of the partner team’s proposed heavy rail concept would travel underground, with the remainder of the line traveling primarily in an aerial section.  A Valley-to-Westside trip would take just under 20 minutes according to the team’s proposal.  The team’s estimated costs for constructing this proposed solution is EUR9.57 bn (USD10.8 bn). It is developing alternatives 4 and 5.  

Visit https://www.metro.net/projects/sepulvedacorridor/ and https://thesource.metro.net. 05/22.