Southeast / Long Beach : ‘Berlin Wall’ Out, Transit Route In

Cosmetic details were what it took to win over the City of Compton on the $1.8-billion Alameda Corridor transit project. In exchange for some strategic landscaping, Compton officials have withdrawn their opposition to running a submerged 27-mile railway and truck thoroughfare through the city’s business district.

“It would be more attractive than what was originally planned,” said Michael Gagan, a spokesman for four cities along the corridor, including Compton. “You don’t have that Berlin Wall effect.”

When it is completed around the year 2001, the corridor, which will lie in a trench 32 feet below street level, is expected to speed cargo traffic along Alameda Street from the ports in Long Beach and San Pedro to rail yards in Los Angeles. Planners say it will reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

An agreement approved by corridor officials last week calls for a 10-foot-high wall that would have lined the corridor to be placed on a six-foot grade below street level, leaving only 4 feet of wall visible. Pedestrian plazas with trees and vendor kiosks will be placed at three overpasses above the railway, including one at Compton Boulevard.

The cost of landscaping along the corridor is now expected to reach $10 million to $15 million.