

We're moving toward next year's official groundbreaking for the Purple Line extension, which will eventually take the line from Western out to Westwood; pre-construction is ramping up and full-on work kicks off in 2014, so Metro held an advisory group meeting last night for the extension's first 3.9-mile phase, which will bring the subway from Koreatown to the eastern edge of Beverly Hills, and create new stations at Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega. The gathering at the Petersen Automotive Museum was a pretty staid affair, devoid of the screaming hordes that descended on earlier subway meetings (the mania came from some Beverly Hills locals apoplectic over the selected route). Metro officials discussed the construction schedule--most of next year will be spent doing utility relocation, and in 2015 and '16, they'll be doing station excavation and decking Wilshire so that cars can travel above while excavation happens below; 2016 is also the year that those giant tunnel boring machines will be dropped into the ground and start munching their way to BH.

Metro expects to encounter a lot of tar and fossils as they make their way to the Miracle Mile and are partnering with the Page Museum to salvage and save dino bones. After building out the stations from 2017 to 2021, the first phase will be mostly done by 2022, but it'll take another year to test the project and make sure it's ready for primetime. Metro is looking to speed up their schedule on the extension, but that would only hasten the project's latter phases to Century City and Westwood. And, worry not, says Metro, Beverly Hills's multiple lawsuits over the Century City station should not slow down the first phase.

· Purple Line Extension Archives [Curbed LA]