Metro Signs $1.3 Billion Full Funding Grant Agreement For Westside Subway Phase 3

Last week, Metro quietly signed a federal Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) for $1.3 billion to construct the Westside Purple Line Extension Section 3. Though this comes after a delay of more than two years in the federal government disbursing congressionally-approved transit monies, it is nonetheless great news for Southern California mobility.

Overall the extensions will add nine miles of Westside Purple Line (now renamed the "D Line") subway, extending from Koreatown to Beverly Hills to West Los Angeles. Subway extension sections one and two are already under construction and are slated to open in 2023 and 2025, respectively. Phase three will extend the subway 2.6 miles from Century City to Westwood and the V.A. Hospital.

The FFGA was signed last week, according to a Metro CEO Phil Washington brief, shared on Twitter by Metro document sleuth @Numble:

A year or two ago, this would have been front page news.

Today it feels like a (another) stunt from an administration reluctant to actually support transit mobility, but now newly eager to push monies out to stimulate this nation's COVID-19-ravaged economy. For more than two years, the Trump administration withheld transit project funding approved by Congress, delaying transit infrastructure projects in L.A., Phoenix, Minneapolis, Durham, New York City, Milwaukee, Seattle, and elsewhere.

Since 2017, Metro has been pushing to get Section Three subway construction fully underway. This FFGA was expected in early 2018. As Metro-approved construction contracts threatened to go stale, the feds had been dangling the elusive FFGA approval in Metro's face, with some early preliminary approvals (a partial letter of no prejudice in late 2018) and plenty of excuses (in 2019 feds blamed the month-long government shutdown for the then year-long delay.) All along costs were escalating; Section Three was anticipated to run about $2-2.5 billion - now (in very uncertain times) the cost is estimated at $3.6 billion. In early February, Metro reported that the FFGA was about thirty days away from approval, but skeptical observers barely registered the development as news, because Metro leadership had been saying - for over a year - that approval was anticipated any day now.

Thank goodness those FFGA delays are finally history.

Now Metro faces the herculean task of getting subway construction underway in the face of an escalating pandemic. Though last week Metro CEO Washington stated that "construction is not impacted by COVID-19 at this time," that situation - like everything else - is changing daily. This week Metro reported that two construction contractors locally are reporting COVID-19 infections. Unknowns - from worker shortages to global supply chain disruptions - could spell delays.

Nonetheless, this is good news.