LACMTA names TBM for Crenshaw/LAX line; pre-revenue testing begins on Gold Line Foothill Extension


Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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A Gold Line Foothill Extension test train in Monrovia Yard
LACMTA/The Source

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) named the Crenshaw/LAX Line's tunnel boring machine (TBM) Harriet, after Harriet Tubman, the former slave and key player in the Underground Railroad that helped slaves escape the south for the north.

 

The TBM will be used to excavate the twin one-mile tunnels at the northern end of the new rail line. It will be lowered by segments and then will be assembled underground in the next few weeks. Tunnel boring is expected to last approximately 13 months and will connect three underground light-rail stations: Crenshaw/Expo, Martin Luther King Jr. and Leimert Park.

The TBM weighs 950 tons, 21.5 feet in diameter, 400 feet long and will dig 60 feet per day. When the TBM reaches Leimert Park Station, it will be disassembled and returned to the Expo Yard, where it will be lowered again and launched to excavate the second tunnel.

The 8.5-mile Crenshaw/LAX Line is a $2.058-billion light-rail line that will run between the Green Line and the Expo Line. It will have eight new stations to serve the Crenshaw, Inglewood and LAX communities and is expected to open in 2019.

In other LACMTA news, there have been plenty of test trains rolling along the Gold Line extension to Azusa, Calif., in the past few months, but now it’s time for the final run-up to the opening. Pre-revenue testing on the new line has begun and will continue until the extension’s opening day on March 5.

The Foothill Gold Line is a nearly $2 billion, 12-station extension of the LACMTA Gold Line light-rail system, being overseen by the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority. The project is planned in two segments – Pasadena to Azusa and Azusa to Montclair. The rail extension took approximately five years to build, with major construction completed in September 2015. The construction authority handed over the line to LACMTA which will operate the line.

 

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