While debate simmers over whether the last segment of the Exposition light-rail line should run through upscale Westside neighborhoods, safety concerns raised by state officials and others threaten to delay the first phase of the $640-million project from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City.
Ground has been broken, contracts have been awarded and construction is getting underway on the nine-mile first phase, which is scheduled for completion in 2010. But the state agency that oversees rail safety in California is concerned that the trains may pose a risk to pedestrians and motorists at several locations.
Until additional safety precautions are incorporated into the project's design, the California Public Utilities Commission and the agency building the line remain at odds over 13 intersections near Los Angeles Trade Tech College, USC and Dorsey High School in the Crenshaw district.
"The commission's jurisdiction ... does not include whether to build a transit line. All we are concerned with is the safety of the proposed rail line," said Patrick S. Berdge, the commission attorney.
Several residents along the former railroad right of way are formally protesting the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority's applications to put rails across 44 intersections along the route. In addition, a USC engineering professor and Los Angeles Unified School district officials have voiced safety concerns.
Builders of the rail line fear the issues raised by the utilities commission staff and others could delay construction for years and add millions of dollars to the project's cost. So they are fighting back, pushing legislation in Sacramento to cut in half the amount of time the commission has to act on the grade-crossing applications.
"We've still got a lot of folks talking about what we should do with this project," said Rick Thorpe, chief executive of the construction authority. "That discussion should have been done a long time ago.... When do you draw the line and say, 'We're done. Let's go build it.' "
Over the last three decades, Thorpe has built light-rail lines in San Diego, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. "I won't allow any design
Others aren't so sure. Najmedin Meshkati, a USC engineering professor, warns that fast-moving trains on the Exposition Line will pose a danger to "sensitive and vulnerable populations such as schoolchildren and elderly pedestrians."
