Los Angeles Metro (LA Metro) – East San Fernando Valley LRT Project

The East San Fernando Valley LRT Project extends 9.2 miles, connecting the Van Nuys Metro Orange Line station to the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink Station. $1.3 billion has been identified for the project, mostly coming from local Measure M, Measure R and State gas tax funds. Once in place, Light Rail Trains similar to the Metro Gold and Expo lines, will operate in the median of Van Nuys Blvd for 6.7 miles from the Metro Orange Line station to San Fernando Road.  At San Fernando Road, trains will transition onto an existing railroad corridor adjacent to San Fernando Road. Trains will operate on a shared corridor with Metrolink’s Valley Subdivision for the final 2.5 miles to the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink Station.

Zephyr Rail is responsible for the Preliminary Engineering design of the 2.5 miles of the project along the shared corridor.  The major tasks include the design of LRT alignments for the two Metro tracks, design of commuter alignments for the realignment of the existing Metrolink Valley Subdivision track and a future second commuter track, a pocket track, special trackwork, and coordination with roadway engineers for the at-grade crossings and bike path realignment, station architects for four LRT stations, right-of-way engineers for defining the right-of-way needs through the downtown San Fernando area where the right-of-way is the narrowest, drainage engineers along the railroad corridor, structural engineers for the new bridges over the Pacoima Wash, traffic engineers for modifications to adjacent parking lots, systems engineers for the railroad signal systems for both the LRT tracks and relocated Metrolink track and Traction Power Supply Stations, assistance in coordination with CPUC for the five vehicular at-grade crossings and two pedestrian crossings, and coordination with the Metro Brighton to Roxford Double Track project for joining the future second track.

Figure 1 – LA Metro – East San Fernando Valley LRT Project