Metro Orange Line Extension Project Team Completes New Parking Lot At Chatsworth Metrolink/Amtrak Station
Construction Milestone: On the fourth anniversary of the opening of the Metro Orange Line, Metro work crews have officially completed the first construction phase of the line’s four-mile extension in the North San Fernando Valley – a parking lot at the Chatsworth Metrolink/Amtrak Station.
Sully-Miller Contracting Co. has completed a 310-space north parking lot that will now accommodate transit customers who normally park at Chatsworth Station’s south lot closest to Lassen Street. The lot increases the total number of available parking spaces at the station fropm 480 to 610, a 130-space increase. Portions of the south parking lot will soon be closed for use as a staging area for the next phase of construction at the location, which will include building a bridge over Metrolink and Amtrak train tracks and Lassen Street as well as utility relocations and street improvements at Lassen Street. Other station-specific work includes Metrolink rail signal and at-grade crossing enhancements and construction of the new Metro Orange Line station terminus.
The project was completed successfully with the cooperation of the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation, which will operate the parking lot.
“In completing this parking lot, we can now officially begin construction of the actual Orange Line alignment between Canoga Park and Chatsworth,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board Member. “We're fast approaching the day when we transform this tired old former railroad right-of-way into a beautiful, functional Bus Rapid Transit line that will benefit all regional bus and train commuters.”
The north parking lot includes lighting, landscaping, fencing and bio-cells — part of the project’s storm water management system. A vital step in creating a “green infrastructure,” bio-cells slow down and filter the rainwater from the parking lot before the water eventually flows into the Los Angeles River.
“Bringing the successful Orange Line north to Chatsworth will create another major transportation hub in the San Fernando Valley by connecting the system to the Metrolink and Amtrak station,” said Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, also a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board Member. “Residents of this part of the county will soon have a new mode of transportation available to them to overcome traffic congestion.”
Metro will soon award a Design-Build contract for the majority of construction work. Work will include design and construction of the busway, new stations at Sherman Way (with park-and-ride), Roscoe Boulevard, Nordhoff Street, and Chatsworth Metrolink Station. The existing Canoga park-and-ride lot will be modified with additional station platforms. The contractor also will design and build a bridge over the Los Angeles River, a crossing at the Santa Susana Wash, street improvements, bicycle/pedestrian paths, a satellite bus parking facility, landscaping, bio-swales, and systems equipment.
The next phase of construction work is scheduled to begin in early 2010. The project, expedited by three years through the passage of the Measure R half-cent sales tax, is scheduled to open in 2012.