Stay-at-home order helps Metro end Purple Line road closure in Beverly Hills ahead of schedule
With the public staying home during the coronavirus crisis, work was finished faster than expected on the Metro Purple Line station in Beverly Hills.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- Metro has completed decking for its planned Beverly Hills Purple Line subway station seven months ahead of schedule.
The work was accelerated thanks to the county's safer-at-home order implemented during the coronavirus crisis, which kept traffic light and businesses closed. That allowed local roads to be shut down for extended periods of time during the construction.
The decking work essentially involves excavating the street and then providing a type of temporary roadway at ground level that allows traffic to flow while subway construction work continues underground.
The original plan was for the decking to be done only over the weekends from August 2020 to January 2021, so that road closures would be limited, but would continue over a longer period of time.
But after the county stay-at-home order was implemented, the city of Beverly Hills approved Metro's requests for full street closures starting March 31.
The contractor put workers on extra shifts over a six-day week to finish the work - and even moved to seven days a week when county curfews were imposed at night during the George Floyd protests.
Wilshire Boulevard between Crescent and El Camino drives was officially reopened to traffic Sunday night.
The Purple Line extension, at one point nicknamed the Subway to the Sea, will connect downtown Los Angeles to the Westside in a 25-minute trip
It is being built in three sections. Section two of the Purple Line extension to Wilshire/Rodeo and Century City Constellation is scheduled to open in 2025.
