Los Angeles, the 2,200-square-mile poster child for car culture, is apparently remembering it once had a world-class rail system. For the last three decades, it has been slowly rebuilding a network of trolleys and subways. In May, a new four-mile segment with three new stations will open along Wilshire Boulevard, the key corridor from downtown to the Pacific. What is currently an hours-long drive through a museum-packed stretch will, if all goes well, become a 25-minute train ride.
Building subway stops in the Miracle Mile area is less an urban planning victory and more a technological triumph over geography and geology. The ground there is tarry and full of methane - a disaster waiting to happen, as proven in 1985 when a methane deposit exploded and destroyed a department store. This charming feature previously scared the city into routing trains elsewhere.
Now, dirt full of flammable goo is apparently no longer a problem. “The technology finally caught up with the concerns,” says LA Metro’s James Cohen. The key was an earth-pressure-balance tunnel-boring machine, an automated digger designed to chew through explosive gas. It sends dirt topside via conveyor belts and slides precast concrete liner segments into place, creating a gas- and waterproof tube. This let the machine dig about 50 feet every day.
Engineers excavated the stations from the street level down, mostly on weekends. They would dig out a space, deck it with concrete, and continue work underneath while LA drivers above exercised their divine right to travel by car.
Did the project finish on time? No. Did it come in under budget? Also no; this segment alone cost nearly $4 billion. Is the city now racing to build housing and walkable areas to take full advantage? Please. Yet, against all odds, the new stations still manage to feel transformative - as if Los Angeles’s train has, quite literally, finally come in.