LA Metro Selects Anser Advisory to Oversee STC Development

” We recognize the significance and urgency within this opportunity to reimagine one of the nation’s busiest travel corridors,” said Adam Shaw, Anser Advisory Chief Delivery Officer and Principal P3 Advisor. (Photo: Business Wire)

LA Metro, in its Oct. 27, 2022, Board of Directors meeting, “unanimously approved” the selection of Anser Advisory to provide program management and pre-development agreement oversight services for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor (STC) project, the nation’s “largest alternative delivery transit project.”

To “tackle the complex challenge of building a world-class public transportation route through the natural barrier of the Santa Monica mountains,” LA Metro says it is pursuing an innovative approach using pre-development agreements (PDAs) to evaluate two potential transit technology approaches—monorail and heavy rail solutions.

LA Metro is working with two private-sector teams, LA SkyRail Express (including John Laing, BYD, Skanska, ACI, HDR, Gensler and Innova) and Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners (including Bechtel Development Company, Meridiam Sepulveda and American Triple I (ATI), Bechtel Infrastructure, Mott Macdonald, T.Y. Lin, and Systra) under a “first-of-its-kind” PDA to develop project alternatives.

In March 2021, Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners was awarded a $69.9 million PDA contract to further develop its proposed heavy rail concept; SkyRail Express was awarded a $63.6 million PDA contract to further develop its proposed monorail concept.

Anser Advisory will coordinate and oversee the development efforts of the two PDA teams on behalf of LA Metro to “best align the proposed solutions” with the agency’s goals and objectives for the corridor and advise LA Metro on the technical evaluation of the proposals.

If one of the PDA’s proposed alternatives is selected as a locally preferred alternative (LPA) in Metro’s environmental clearance process, Anser Advisory could assist Metro in structuring and negotiating project implementation via a potential public-private partnership (P3) delivery model.

“We recognize the significance and urgency within this opportunity to reimagine one of the nation’s busiest travel corridors,” said Anser Advisory Chief Delivery Officer and Principal P3 Advisor Adam Shaw. “We applaud Metro’s willingness to use an innovative delivery approach that will result in a thoroughly-considered approach in an unprecedented time for infrastructure development across Los Angeles.”

The STC project intends to link Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley to its westside neighborhoods with innovative, high-speed, high-capacity service that will provide a transit alternative to I-405 traffic congestion. The project is funded in part by Measure M, the transportation sales tax approved by 71% of Los Angeles County voters in 2016. The Measure M Expenditure Plan calls for delivery of the valley to westside project phase by 2033-35 and extension to LAX by 2057-59.