Thirteen years ago, Metro was considering 47 end points for where the Gold Line extension from East Los Angeles should end. On Thursday, that number was reduced to one.

On a 13-0 vote, the Metro board directed its employees to continue studying just one option for the light rail, the one that would travel Atlantic and Washington boulevards and end at PIH Health in Whittier.

However, to mollify San Gabriel Valley-area officials who were supporting a line along the 60 Freeway to South El Monte, the board also voted to direct employees to prepare a feasibility study looking at other options to meet the needs of Valley residents.

The board also voted to commit to spend $633.5 million from Measure R, a sales tax Los Angeles County voters approved 2008, only in the San Gabriel Valley. It wasn’t clear for which projects the money would be allocated.

Whittier Mayor Joe Vinatieri, who has been fighting to bring the Gold Line to Whittier since the beginning, said the board’s decision was amazing. He was one of 12 speakers from his city. A total of 39 spoke.

“I can’t believe it, we won,” Vinatieri said. “We’ve been working on this for so many years. It’s coming true. It means sticking with it and not giving up.”

Metro board members, even those who represent the San Gabriel Valley, said they had no choice but to drop consideration of the 60 Freeway alternative and focus only on the Washington Boulevard route because of a variety of issues which could delay construction for years.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who represents mostly the San Gabriel Valley, acknowledged the 60 Freeway route is “challenging.”

Among the concerns: “You have the Army Corps of Engineers, (a flood plain) Whittier Narrows and a hazardous waste landfill (in Monterey Park) that has been closed for many years,” Solis said. “You have so many difficult and costly challenges that you would need to remove or go around,” Solis said.

Some of the specific problems include:

Planned future widening of the 60 Freeway would mean a lack of state-owned land for the light-rail, forcing a change in route which would necessitate condemning some homes.

It would be more difficult to avoid the toxic waste landfill near Monterey Park.

The existing Southern California Edison high-voltage power lines that cross the freeway near Paramount would need to be raised.

One of the four planned stations would be in a flood plain has run into objections from the Army Corps of Engineers, who said the station needs to withstand a 150-year flood.

Metro couldn’t find a large enough site for its maintenance storage facility, and the only one officials did find was 15 acres when 20 is needed. That would mean only 70 train cars could be stored when space for 100 to 120 is needed.

The 60 Freeway route lacks connections to residential areas and the Washington Boulevard route would serve more minority, transit-dependent communities.

But Solis also called on the board to ensure that $633 million that Measure R set aside for the San Gabriel Valley, still would be spent there.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said setting aside that money will have no effect on funding the route to Whittier because the board hadn’t yet made decisions on that issue. The board is expected to talk about funding in May.

But eliminating review of the 60 Freeway will speed the process for the Washington Boulevard alternative, Hahn said. The goal is to get it done by the time the Olympics are in Southern California in 2028, she added.

That’s also why Hahn said she opposed a proposal by the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments to delay Thursday’s vote to allow for more officials from the Valley time to weigh in.

“It would be an absolute mistake to delay this item,” she said. “We must move forward.”

The route to Whittier is not trouble-free. Among its obstacles include crossing the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel rivers and 605 Freeway, and finding a large enough property to launch and extract the machines which would dig the tunnel underneath Atlantic Boulevard.