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Heavy Rail vs Monorail: Could the recent approval of two transit proposals change LA's 'most challenging transit corridor?'

2021-04-01T13:59:00-04:00

Los Angeles freeways are notorious soul-sucking pathways that most residents face daily. The infamous 405 freeway is considered one of the most "congested stretches of highway in the United States." However, as Forbes Staff writer Alan Ohnsman reports, there may be two solutions the city's transportation authority can get behind. "Local officials are considering an audacious fix for commuters on the city's west side: a sleek, automated $6.1 billion monorail to whisk riders above soul-crushing freeway jams," writes Ohnsman. "A rival proposal for a $10.8 billion subway from a group led by construction giant Bechtel, running below the highway, also won PDA funds worth up to $69.9 million."

While many remember the "hyped" vacuum-tube hyperloop proposed by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk making headlines, the city did not make it a contender for transit funding. LA traffic is inevitable, but will the proposed LA Skyrail Express and subway project from Bechtel lead the city to an impro...

Archinect's critical round-up: the week's best architectural critiques so far

2015-08-06T17:48:00-04:00

Over at the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Hawthorne eloquently pans the new addition to the 405 freeway, noting that "The expanded 405 might be the first L.A. freeway project to look haggard and disjointed the day it opened." His review comes at a time when infrastructure, especially in California, is starting to (violently) show signs of its age: last year, the University of California Los Angeles briefly flooded thanks to an aged water main breaking, and in July a freak thunderstorm collapsed a portion of interstate 10. Hawthorne's displeasure is focused primarily on the 405's haphazard design to please multiple neighborhoods, its tacky soil-nail construction retaining walls ("This technique is something like the comb-over of freeway design"), and its simple underwhelming-ness as a public works project.

Meanwhile, James S. Russell's thoughtful examination of Thomas Heatherwick in the New York Times delves into one of the perennially feisty debates of the architectural realm: just ...

$1.1 Billion and Five Years Later, the 405 Congestion Relief Project Is a Fail

2015-03-10T14:49:00-04:00

...the $1.1 billion question hangs in the air: Is the 405 any more relieved of congestion than when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Congressman Brad Sherman and County Supervisor Gloria Molina demanded in 2006 that L.A.'s "fair share" of state bond money be used to add carpool lanes to the 405? The answer is no. A traffic study by Seattle-based...Inrix has shown that auto speeds during the afternoon crawl on the northbound 405 are now the same or slightly slower...

405 Freeway closure exposes the limits of Los Angeles' mobility

2011-07-12T02:37:04-04:00

...doesn't the general freakout over the shutdown suggest, in and of itself, its fundamental folly? It hurts to lose the 405 even for a weekend not because freeways are so valuable or because we love them so much but because we've painted ourselves in a corner in terms of mobility. We have left ourselves no escape hatches or viable alternatives.

LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne eyes impending automotive doom.

Follow the link for a thoughtful piece on "the city's great synecdoche" and how its future might impact architectural landmarks.