It's been quite a while since the last time we visited the Expo Line, and we were at dark regarding the progress as a result. But the nice thing about the break was that it was so shocking to see all the progress at once. It is exhilarating to see the Expo Line come back to life after so many years. Our hard efforts are now paying off. This will be a great line, bringing back and important part of LA history.
We start at the Venice/Robertson Station. A lot of steel cages and cranes are in this area. The foundations and supports will be done soon here but the falsework and bridge construction won't start until next summer because the new contractor (not FFP) won't be hired until April:
Next is a funky looking support at Wesley St by National Blvd (south of Washington):
Two more supports are lined there:
Just east of Ballona Creek are two supports. On the west side of Ballona Creek, they had to remove one of the supports because they realized that they drilled through the tie-back of the existing bridge. The tie-back and support will be redesigned and rebuilt in the future. So, the Ballona Creek LRT bridge will be delayed for a few months now:
This is the arched La Brea bridge, looking north:
La Brea bridge and ramp looking west:
Crenshaw Blvd rail crossing:
And this is what we all have been waiting for. Rail tracks have now been installed on the ballast. The railroad right-of-way is finally looking like a railroad again. It's amazing how fast the track installation is. They have laid 0.6 miles of track in only one week. No wonder it took only a few years for Henry E. Huntington to build railroads everywhere in LA. If you don't have utility relocation, environmental work, and grade separation, track installation is a breeze. This is at 11th Ave looking west to Crenshaw Blvd:
You can see the concrete ties on the eastbound tracks and the wooden ties for the crossovers on the westbound track:
Crossover with wooden ties looking east at 11th Ave:
Close-up:
Looking west at Crenshaw. Rail is not straight yet. I guess it's the job of the big yellow machine (a rail grinder?) to align the rail perfectly straight:
115 (pounds per yard) and 2008 is stamped on the rails:
Another shot looking west near 11th Ave:
7th Ave looking west:
7th Ave looking west close-up:
They are laying black landscape cloth on the subballast to retard weed growth. Then they lay ballast (coarse gravel) and put the ties and tracks on top of that, before they cover the ties with ballast. This is near Normandie:
A traction-power substation just west of Vermont Ave:
We are looking forward to riding this line to as far as La Cienega Blvd in November 2010.