Gas Hazard Report Delays Decision on Wilshire Red Line Extension

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors has postponed until June a decision on whether it will study extending the Red Line west along Wilshire Boulevard.

The Wilshire corridor path is one of two alternative routes proposed for the Red Line extension; the other runs along Sixth Street. The alternative routes were suggested after hydrogen sulfide was discovered along the MTA’s current extension path, which veers off Wilshire Boulevard at Western Avenue and travels southwest to Pico and San Vicente boulevards.

In a meeting Wednesday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky proposed delaying a decision on the Wilshire corridor and Sixth Street routes. Yaroslavsky, supported by Mayor Richard Riordan, said the board should wait until June, when it is scheduled to receive the results of a hydrogen sulfide study of the Pico/San Vicente area.

If the hydrogen sulfide problem is acute, Yaroslavsky said, the board is likely to support the Wilshire corridor.

Proponents of the Wilshire route include Yaroslavsky, the Beverly Hills City Council, Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, UCLA Chancellor Charles Young and representatives of several of the museums on Miracle Mile.

However, opposition to the Wilshire alignment includes Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles), and Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

Waxman has opposed the Wilshire route since a methane gas explosion in 1985 destroyed a department store in the Fairfax area. Concerned that underground tunneling would trigger another such explosion, he lobbied successfully for legislation prohibiting Red Line tunneling along the portion of the boulevard that runs through his district.

Waxman’s efforts forced the MTA to come up with the Pico/San Vicente alignment.

Now, Waxman, Dixon and Brathwaite Burke argue that the MTA may lose the $400 million in federal funding it already has secured for the Red Line if the transit agency considers alternate routes.

In addition, Dixon and Brathwaite Burke have argued that the Pico/San Vicente alignment would tie the Red Line into the proposed Crenshaw-Prairie line, which would bring train service through the Crenshaw district and to LAX.