In+Motion_Spring 2021

Inglewood Transit Connector continued from p 1

President’s Column

help economically revitalize Downtown Inglewood. Planning for the Market Street/Florence Avenue Station preserves future opportunities to integrate with commercial, residential and other transit-oriented development planned for the Downtown Inglewood area. The Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the ITC was released in December 2020 and the City is currently on schedule to release the Final EIR by Q3 2021. The Final EIR will respond to the comments received on the Draft EIR and include project refinements. The Lea+Elliott team takes great pride in working with the City and its other consultants to develop station design concepts that integrate pedestrian bridges, plazas, intuitive and effective wayfinding, thoughtful landscaping and welcoming architecture into the ITC. The ITC project will be delivered using a Design-Build-Finance- Operate-Maintain approach which has been informed with industry feedback obtained through Requests for Information as part of the City’s market sounding process. For more information regarding the proposed procurement process, please visit the Project website (www.envisioninglewood.com) and sign up for notifications. Procurement documents are anticipated to be released in Q3 2021. The graphic below illustrates the anticipated project timeline.

New Directions for Moving People

The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop opened for business April 9. Composed of twin 0.8-mile- tunnels, each 12 feet in diameter, the underground system uses Tesla

vehicles to chauffeur visitors throughout the 200-acre complex. The Boring Company completed the project in 18 months at a cost of $52.5 million. The concept was initially met with skepticism; but once it came to fruition, it is now getting attention from other cities, as well as airports and transit system operators. This system currently uses manually driven cars though plans are in the works to transition to high frequency automated vehicles in the future. Today, we are assessing the technologies used for the Las Vegas tunnel and we are participating in a unique project that involves an underground transportation system to connect the Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink station to Ontario (CA) International Airport. We are part of a project management/construction management team performing planning, procurement, implementation oversight and system verification services. Our specific role focuses on safety certification, operational analysis, and operations and maintenance requirements for the emerging technology. In addition, we continue to get many questions from our other clients, and we will continue to watch the technology evolve. I think it offers great potential for Lea+Elliott because of our expertise in managing processes and technologies to move people quickly, efficiently and safely. Perhaps we can bring ideas to the table that will allow for economies of scale as our clients explore their transportation alternatives for the future.

Image credit: City of Inglewood

Jack Norton

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Vol. 28 No 1