Metro is planning to remove decking on Wilshire Boulevard between La Brea and Highland avenues from April through July. The work will require full street closures during weekends. (photo by Edwin Folven)

Metro is planning a major upcoming street restoration project around the Wilshire/La Brea station in April and is holding online meetings on the decking removal on Tuesday, March 15, from 6-6:45 p.m., and Wednesday, March 16, from noon-12:45 p.m., via Zoom. To join the meetings, visit zoom.us/j/96626476708. Registration required in advance. The public can also participate by calling (669)900-9128, and entering the webinar ID: 966 2647 6708.

Crews will remove decking on Wilshire Boulevard between La Brea and Highland avenues from April 22 through July 11, which will require full weekend closures of Wilshire Boulevard. The work will occur from 9 p.m. on Fridays through 6 a.m. on Mondays, and the street will be restored for weekday commutes.

Metro is also advising about construction on the Purple Line Extension project that will impact traffic along Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. Crews will be reconfiguring traffic lanes from 9 p.m. on Friday, March 11, through 6 a.m. on Monday, March 14, as part of piling work for the future Westwood/UCLA subway station. Pile installation on Wilshire Boulevard between Veteran Avenue and Westwood Boulevard will move to the middle of the street. Wilshire Boulevard will be re-striped, and concrete K-rail barriers will be placed along the border of the work zone to protect the public.

The work will require traffic to be reduced to one lane in each direction on Wilshire Boulevard between Westwood Boulevard and Veteran Avenue. Traffic control officers will be deployed to mitigate impacts during the initial phase of the traffic flow reconfiguration. The construction will occur through May 14 and notices will be updated online each week at metro.net/projects/westside.

Work is occurring at many other places along the subway project on Wilshire Boulevard. In Beverly Hills, crews are working on the future Wilshire/Rodeo and Wilshire/La Cienega subway stations. At Wilshire/Rodeo, the current phase of station construction will occur through 2024. Lanes on Wilshire Boulevard will be intermittently closed between El Camino and Crescent drives. Geotechnical instruments are also being installed on sidewalks from Century City to La Cienega Boulevard to monitor ground movement, settlement and other geological impacts.

Near Wilshire/La Cienega, crews are building appendage structures, which are passageways and rooms adjacent to the main subway station. The work will be ongoing through the third quarter of 2022 and traffic on Wilshire Boulevard will be impacted. Two lanes will be open in each direction between La Cienega and San Vicente boulevards, and Gale Drive will be temporarily closed north of Wilshire Boulevard through April. A new phase of the work is scheduled to begin in April, when Gale Drive will be closed south of Wilshire Boulevard.

Construction is also occurring at and around a future subway station at Wilshire/Fairfax. Station construction will occurr in a staging area at Wilshire Boulevard and Ogden Drive, and in a work zone at the southeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. Through 2024, a K-rail work zone will be located in the middle of Wilshire Boulevard between Courtyard Place and Masselin Avenue to support construction in the tunnels beneath Wilshire Boulevard.

For questions and concerns about the Purple Line Extension project, call the 24-hour project hotline at (213)922-6934, email the project team at purplelineext@metro.net, or visit metro.net.