Renders Show Reimagined 1st & Alameda

Thanks to you and Ron for the renderings. Now I can see clearly how this is supposed to work. Yep, Office Depot is gone, which is no great loss (although I do find the place handy). I wonder if it is possible for the restaurants along Central on that block to survive during construction. Hmm, I'm not encouraged. But, the long-term improvement would certainly be worth it.

I do also wonder if Second Street would continue to thrive as a retail and restaurant corridor during the construction period. Doubtless it would rebound in the aftermath. Such is life.

Second Street would be largely unaffected because the square block that contains the Office Depot would be the place where the train emerges from underground. The tunnels are built with a boring machine, so the street can remain as is. You would see disruption only where the stations get built, because the ground would have to be opened there.

The intersection of 1st and Alameda would be a mess for a while, however.

Simply REPLACE the (newly built) J-Town station with an underground station as part of a sunken Y at the intersection. The track transitioning from the Pasadena line to the East L.A. line would remain at grade. A portal to grade running to East L.A. could emerge in the center of First Street east of Alameda. A portal to grade running to Union Station/Pasadena could emerge on the east side of Alameda north of First.

Instead of condemning the Office Depot/Atomic Cafe buildings, instead condemn the other structure to the north of Office Depot. That is where you would have construction access. Moreover, with an underground Y, you could utilize the unbuilt parcel at the northeast corner for access and storage space. And stabilize the ground beneath whatever structures that would remain above twin-bores extending from Second and Japanese Village Ped Crossing running directly towards First & Alameda.

Pursuing the ideas presented in the above schematics, you have the cost of depressing Alameda beneath First as well as condemnation of most of the Office Depot block plus additional lineal foot of track running south of the Related residential block, not to mention the cost of the far out pedestrian overpasses which require lengthy ramps and elevators and what's to prevent pedestrians from chancing it in front of oncoming trains, just like auto drivers along the Blue Line have chanced it and been creamed to smithereens.

Replace the J-Town station with something more imaginative, under ground.

I second Juanito's idea. Move the construction action to where it is less disruptive.

Actually, in the first rendering, it looks like the former Atomic Cafe / current Senor Fish building wouldn't be touched at all. That's shown as a blank spot on the rendering, but that 100+ year old one-story brick bldg. is definitely there. In this rendering, it would remain. The small buildings holding Starbucks etc. also would remain, as the first picture shows.

However, the last rendering shows giant crosswalks and some giant Wal-Mart like structure taking up the entire block, so I can't really tell just WHAT they are proposing to do, apart from building a train portal.

Compense the temple by condeming land to the west of their parking lot. Reconfigure the parking lot so that there can be space for a classic Japanese landscape between the lot and the temple. Widen First Street. Replace the existing garden landscape south of the temple with high granite boulders and wrought iron fencing/gates. Abandon Banning Street for two blocks east of Alameda. Future private development should include extending Hewitt from First up to Temple Street. The parcel at the northeast corner of First & Alameda would have frontage/access only on First and on Hewitt streets. The owner would be given the abandoned section of Banning Street to compense for whatever setback required along the north side of First.

Whatever solution for keeping the Gold Line operational should prevail over automotive/truck traffic. Eliminate street parking on Vignes for duration of construction (Temple and Second as alternate routes). And there could be three eight hour work shifts to speed the process.

Make those very select granite boulders. Much less costly than condemning Office Depot.

Voila!

Overall, I really, really like this plan as a below grade subway. Even before I heard about this connector proposal, I thought it was odd that the gold line from East LA abruptly turned north towards Union Station and away from downtown.

I hope this can be built relatively quickly.

Juanito, Is there such a thing as an Underground Wye?

In many track diagrams and layouts they are always two levels to eliminate two trains blindly colliding with each other. At least with at-grade and elevated the operators can visually see where the train is crossing in it's tracks so there's better reaction time.

So they would have to go even deeper to create the connections that are needed and that would still require the demolition of not only one site but TWO sites to add the two portals, First Street widening and underground wye but you'd still have to close off the 1st/Alameda intersection to build it.

Yep, jus like Wilshire/Vermont.

Let's do it.

And let's hope the Related Companies walks away from The Grand Avenue scheme. Then there can be a Connector station right at the top of Bunker Hill. The county could then take over and begin solving it's infrastructure problem, build new admin and courthouse structures. It's present two buildings could be replaced with office, residential and retail. THAT would activate the mall.

And if the owner of the World Trade Center were able to buy some unused air rights from the Convention Center, he'd be sitting on a gold mine with a Connector station at Flower and Fourth. Then we might get a REAL World Trade Center.

BART uses an underground Wye in downtown Oakland. It is a large, multi-level thing, and the most important connection in thw whole system.

Whatever solution for keeping the Gold Line operational should prevail over automotive/truck traffic. Eliminate street parking on Vignes for duration of construction (Temple and Second as alternate routes). And there could be three eight hour work shifts to speed the process.

That is a good point and that is something I thought about too and that is one of the main reasons why the at-grade First Street crossing is do-able because there are parallel streets that one block away that can take the extra traffic that would have used First Street.

Much less costly than condemning Office Depot.

I would disagree because in the long run they can develop the entire lot after the Connector is operational even bring Office Depot back in with offices and residences above it and generate a consistent source of revenue from the dense mixed-use development.

Will Senor Fish still be there? Good lunch spot. =)

Crack the whip, Jerard!

Tell your bosses to MOVE on this. We need the subway option and we need it now.

Juanito, My boss would be me. I don't work for Metro on this project but my skill is Construction Management, Architecture and Urban Planning/Design so it's that hat from which I'm speaking from.

I do know Ginny would love to hear those other suggestions since her boss is working on the outreach for this project.

Senor Fission...?

I think the two-level underground portal is best. Metro could build it on the north east corner of 1st and Alameda, that way it does not disrupt traffic during construction and you can build on top of it when it is done.

A second alternative would be to dead en 1st street at Alameda (East/West) and put North South Alameda underground. I think this scenario avoids some of the hazards of having any car traffic mixed with trains switching directions.

If you do the Y connection above ground, wouldn't you need to build a second station above ground and how would you let people switch from one station to the other seamlessly when transferring?