State panel approves final Expo Line street crossings

(UPDATED, 4:30 p.m.) After more than two years of debate, state regulators this morning finally granted approvals to the two remaining street crossings on the under-construction Expo Line light rail between Los Angeles and Culver City.

Both crossings are near schools in South Los Angeles, and school officials and community members have raised concerns that students could potentially be hit by speeding trains. Richard Thorpe, CEO of the Expo Line Construction Authority, said that delays caused by making mandated safety improvements will likely result in the Expo Line opening to Culver City in 2011 instead of the planned date of 2010. He added that the Construction Authority Board could decide to try to open the line as far as Crenshaw Boulevard in 2010.

On a 4-1 vote, the California Public Utilities Commission denied a street-level crossing for Farmdale Avenue next to Dorsey High School. That means Farmdale must be closed to traffic at the tracks -- it will no longer be a through street -- and that transit officials will probably have to build a pedestrian bridge over the tracks.

On the other hand, the PUC board granted permission for the tracks to cross atop an existing pedestrian tunnel next to the Foshay Learning Center. The dissenting vote on the PUC board came from Commissioner Timothy Simon, who wanted to require the Expo Line to write a detailed management plan for student safety in the tunnel before giving it approval.

PUC Administrative Law Judge Kenneth Koss had in October proposed requiring, at a minimum, pedestrian bridges over the tracks at both locations. But the PUC board has final say on such matters and was heavily lobbied by the Expo Line Construction Authority in recent weeks.

“The decision eliminates the single greatest threat to student safety” — a street level crossing at Dorsey — “but still puts children at risk by taking out important safety and law enforcement projections put in by the judge who heard the case,” said Michael Strumwasser, an attorney representing the Los Angeles Unified school district.

In particular, Strumwasser said that the PUC failed to resolve another fix an ongoing problem: how police officers at Foshay will now be unable to cross the fenced-off train tracks to respond to crime on the other side of Exposition Boulevard.

Damien Goodmon, a spokesman for United Community Assns., said that his group would continue to advocate for a rail tunnel or bridge at Dorsey and that his group is reserving all legal options. “We don’t want a kid to die before rail safety becomes a concern,” he said.

The school board and activists have 30 days to petition the PUC for a re-hearing. If that is rejected, the groups will have to petition the Court of Appeals or California Supreme Court to review the PUC hearing — and the courts would have to agree to take up the case.

-- Steve Hymon

Comments

[Dana Gabbard]

Hopefully the Cheviot Hills folks will finally understand manipulation of public processes to kill the project will not work. This foreseen outcome will at least allow the project to continue apace in a reasonable timeframe.

I'd ask if the "community activists" who demanded grade separation etc. allegedly for the sake of child safety will now work to lobby local and state officials for the extra funds to build the bridge responding to their concerns. But frankly I expect they'll be AWOL and we activists they so often sneered at, impugned etc. will end up doing that heavy lifting.
They may try to claim the ruling is a victory but this is in fact a huge defeat.

[Darrell Clarke]

No, Mr. Strumwasser, the PUC explicitly DID address how police officers at Foshay will be able to cross the tracks via a gate to "respond to crime on the other side of Exposition Boulevard":

"Therefore, we reject the arguments by LAUSD as to the adequacy and safety of the Harvard tunnel crossing and approve the grade-separated crossing at Harvard, with the requirements that: (1) Expo Authority submit a plan to CPSD for making improvements to the tunnel within 90 days such as increasing lighting and installation of surveillance cameras; (2) Expo Authority install a locked gate along the fence of the Exposition Boulevard median and provide keys to security personnel for Foshay; and (3) require the train operator to slow the light rail trains to 35 mph or slower when passing the Harvard tunnel area during school crossing hours. Construction may begin upon issuance of this decision." (Chong decision, pages 36-7)

[Alan K. Weeks]

At last a long overdue decision has been made. The decision is pretty good an err's on the side of caution. An at grade crossing at Dorsey would have worked but this will be better.
It should be obvious that the State regulatory system is broken. Two years for a decision that should have been made in six months is not acceptable in my mind. At the rate we are going in ten years it won't even be possible to build a Light Rail Line. Just a few Nimby's are bring progress to a halt. I guess this is a bitter sweet victory progress.

[Damien Goodmon of Fix Expo]

Unfortunately the article is inaccurate.

MTA's plans at Farmdale were denied.

From the Decision:

"Order
1. Application (A.). 07-05-013 by the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority (Expo Authority) for an at-grade rail crossing at Farmdale Avenue in the City of Los Angeles is denied."

The CPUC can only approve or deny applications before it. The only application they had before them at Farmdale was for an at-grade crossing. It was rejected. And it is a major major victory for the students, for the community and for all rail safety advocates.

The CPUC did not approve a pedestrian bridge and street closure, they simply denied the at-grade proposal. This was stated quite clearly in the Alternative Decision:

"Though we deny the application for the proposed crossings at Farmdale, we cannot authorize the construction of any of the alternative design options."

Now the CPUC, on behalf of MTA, will undergo an environmental review (CEQA) process where they will have to examine the feasibility and legality of the grade separated alternatives:

a) street-closure with the pedestrian bridge
b) train overcrossing
c) train undercrossing

After that process is concluded, then a revised or new application for Farmdale will be submitted to the CPUC for approval or denial.

The only crossing approved on Friday by the CPUC, was at the Foshay crossing. The decision was unfortunate, and the conditions which lead to the change were the dirtiest possible. The Expo Authority hired a former Enron lobbyist to work to overturn the decision, rendered by Judge Koss and Commissioner Simon after a 2 1/2 yr proceeding, public hearings attended by collectively over 700 people, and a week-long trial that involved the testimony and cross examination of over a dozen expert witnesses. They even had Zev Yaroslavsky, who doesn't represent an area anywhere near Foshay or Dorsey pressuring the Commission to try and reverse Farmdale and remove the bridge at Foshay.

Zev you remember convinced Dana Gabbard's organization, SO.CA.TA into writing a letter SUPPORTING the unsafe at-grade application at Farmdale back in February of 2008. SO.CA.TA stood up against the wishes of the community and school district and against rail safety. Thank goodness the community, schools and rail safety won.

I suppose someone will report on these manipulative tactics in what is supposed to be a judicial process. The CPUC's susceptibility to them thoroughly explains why MTA has continued to operate the deadliest light rail line in the country by far with impunity (Blue Line has kiled 92 and been involved in over 830 reported accidents), Metrolink has operated one of the deadliest commuter rail systems in the country, and MTA continues to propose these unsafe at-grade rail lines in the heart of urban areas.

Further comments will be made on www.FixExpo.org

[Andre]

Dana,
Are you saying all activists were just NIMBY's in disguise? Perhaps it was those of us who see the idiocy of having "at grade" street and pedestrian crossings in a metropolitan high speed rail transit system.

This isn't San Jose with it's cutesy at-grade train system. It's Los Angeles, which should have a subway/rail system on par with Washington DC -- which has very few, if any, at-grade street crossings.

When will LA decide that a high speed rail system (like the one we had in 1940) is imperative to the city's growth -- and separating auto/bus traffic from train is the ONLY way to do that. Otherwise, collisions between trains, cars and pedestrians is not IF, but WHEN.

[Ken Alpern]

Dana raises up some excellent points, but we still must recognize that most of the folks in the region want some traffic relief and alternatives.

I live near Cheviot Hills, and ALL of the communities are concerned about the possibilities and pitfalls of the Expo Line. Those who favor the Expo Line don't want subsequent and resultant overdevelopment, and many of those who favor the ROW routing (like myself) don't believe that at-grade crossings are the right way to go.

Now that we have the PUC-established legal precedents of cost-effective mitigation, school safety prioritization and actually building the Expo Line, it's my hope that--and this is KEY--we can work with both the Authority, the neighbors and the LADOT (who have NOT approved the at-grade crossings, with perhaps the exception of Westwood) to come up with a compromise that will actually better the region with the development of this Expo Line.

[Jason Saunders]

A good decision, thought they should have made it months ago.

The Farmdale crossing wasn't acceptable. The tracks are immediately adjacent to the school perhaps twenty feet from the nearest school building. Hundreds of kids would pile up at the tracks every day rushing to and from classes. It's easy to envision someone dropping a book, tripping as they rush to class, trying to outrun a train, or being pushed in front of the train by another disgruntled teenage student.

Metro/Expo authorities solution of having trains slow to 15 MPH during times when students are present is just not a viable or practicle solution. Shame on them for trying to cut corners on basic safety.

The citizens of Los Angeles want an effective transportation system. Delays instilled in the system like the one the authority proposed at Farmdale add up add up and make the system as a whole less efficient.

Let's do the right thing with Phase 2 schools early on and not wait to the last minute for CPUC to reject a crossing.

This line should be an example of what can be done not what should have been done.

[JRider]

This has never been about the children. Anyone that argues this is for the children is either an idiot or is lying. And it's reasonably clear they are not an idiot. The emotional manipulation on the part of a certain individual is shameful and its unbelievable they have been allowed to carry on this way.

[Roger Dodger]

Why does the title of this article say "State panel approves final Expo Line street crossings", when one crossing was approved and the other denied?

I digress, but this is a major problem with un-checked/edited blog news reporting: errors remain despite obvious corrections needed. There is no "for the record" for blog posts.