A planned Los Angeles County subway extension could see the light of day six months ahead of schedule, as the social and economic shutdown put in place to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus strain prompts authorities to consider consolidating construction activities.

A recent report from Streetsblog indicates that as the volume of pedestrian and vehicle traffic has dropped across the region, authorities in the city of Beverly Hills have worked an agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) that would allow Metro to speed up construction of its forthcoming Purple Line by up to six months. 

Though the wealthy enclave has fought tooth and nail to stop or slow down the subway route running below its streets, it now seems that the opportunity to have construction come to fruition at a quicker pace could convince the Beverly Hills City Council to allow for the full closure of Wilshire Boulevard, the major east-west thoroughfare under which the line is expected to run. 

Previously, Metro and Beverly Hills had agreed to partially close the streets during the weekends between April and August to accommodate piling construction for the route. Now, a plan approved on Wednesday by the Beverly Hills City Council allows for the street to be fully closed for a period lasting between one and three months in order to more efficiently complete the task. Additional construction tasks, including “installation of cap beams, dewatering wells, and geotechnical instrumentation”, will now take place in succession with the piling work, pushing the overall completion of construction on this work to September 2020 rather than March of 2021, as was initially planned.