TBM completes second tunnel for Crenshaw/LAX Line
10 April 2017The Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) announced April 6 the TBM mining the Crenshaw/LAX tunnels arrived at the Leimert Park Station, thereby completing the second of the project’s twin rail tunnels on the underground section of the 8.5-mile (13.6km) line.
Tunnelling began on April 27, 2016 with a 21.5ft- (6.5m-) diameter TBM, and mining completed for the first tunnel in the fall. Excavation of the second tunnel began on November 29, 2016.
Each tunnel is about one mile long (1.6km) — from the future Expo/Crenshaw Station at Exposition and Crenshaw boulevards to the Leimert Park Station at Crenshaw and 43rd. There is also a station in between at Crenshaw and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
Walsh-Shea Corridor Constructors is the contractor and comprised of Walsh, Shea, HNTB, Comstock and Arup.
Metro said mining progress was about 60ft (18m) per day and for the second tunnel. A crew of 75 workers manned the TBM over three shifts, five days per week.
The USD 2.058bn project is projected to open in the fall of 2019.