The first Metro rail project built entirely within the San Fernando Valley has its builder: a joint venture of Stockholm-based Skanska and Alameda-based Stacy and Witbeck Inc., which was awarded a $1.9 billion main construction contract.
This joint venture is currently engaged in pre-construction work on the 6.7-mile Metro East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit line that will run from the Van Nuys Metrolink station north along Van Nuys Boulevard to Pacoima.
With this new main-phase construction contract awarded by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, total value of contracts for the joint venture stands at $2.43 billion. The two partners, which announced the contract on Aug. 14, will each receive roughly $950 million from the $1.9 billion contract.
The at-grade light rail line will include 11 new station platforms serving the Van Nuys, Panorama City, Arleta and Pacoima neighborhoods. The project also includes a 26-acre maintenance yard at the northeastern edge of Van Nuys that will service up to 33 trains running along the route.
‘Investment in mobility’
Construction of the project began last month and is expected to wrap up by the end of 2031.
“The East San Fernando Valley Light Rail project is an investment in mobility for the region,” James Bailey, executive vice president of Skanska USA Civil’s West Coast operations, said in that company’s announcement.
Skanska’s main phase construction work in the Valley comes just after the company wrapped up another even larger project for Metro. That’s the 3.9-mile, $3.5 billion first segment of the Metro D Line extension under Wilshire Boulevard from Western Avenue in Koreatown to La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
Stacy Witbeck, meanwhile, was on the contractor team that built the Metro G Line (formerly called the Orange Line) bus rapid transit project that slices through the San Fernando Valley. That line opened in 2005.
For this project, a Stacy Witbeck executive said the company will pay close attention to detail.
“Delivering the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail requires getting every detail right, from utility coordination through revenue service, across some of the most active urban corridors in Los Angeles,” Eric Meisgeir, project manager for Stacy Witbeck, said in the announcement.
