LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles region has secured nearly $900 million in funding to strengthen infrastructure, expand the Metro Rail system and reconnect communities ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games through a spending package signed into law by President Biden over the weekend and new grant funding from the Biden-Harris Administration.
LA Metro will receive $709.9 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Fiscal Year 2024 transportation spending law, which will go toward the East San Fernando Valley light rail transit project and sections two and three of the D Line (Purple) subway extension project. The Los Angeles region will also receive $160 million in new federal grant funding for street and transit infrastructure, traffic safety and to improve connections between neighborhoods. This includes $139 million that will directly improve transportation mobility access during the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and create lasting enhancements for communities.
In addition to the $709.9 million secured through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s new starts and expedited project delivery pilot programs federal funding, Mayor Bass’ office worked with U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and members of the California congressional delegation to secure grants for the following initiatives through the reconnecting communities pilot program and the neighborhood access and equity programs:
- LA Metro — $139 million: This project will reconnect communities across highway and arterial barriers by creating multimodal investments: bus speed and reliability improvements, first/last mile strategies and projects, mobility hubs, and non‑capital mobility solutions. These investments will improve connectivity in LA County, providing direct benefit to 1 million disadvantaged Angelenos.
- LA Metro — $9.96 million: The project is a partnership between LA Metro, Caltrans, and LA County Public Works and consists of the construction of a dedicated pedestrian and bicycle overcrossing adjacent to the existing Humphreys Avenue bridge over the I-710 in the historically disadvantaged community of East Los Angeles. It also includes complementary pedestrian safety and accessibility improvements such as upgraded crosswalks, ADA-compliant curb ramps, and improved sidewalks.
- Port of Los Angeles — $5 million: This funding will support a pedestrian bridge over two mainline freight tracks in the Port of Los Angeles (the largest port complex in the Western Hemisphere), which can accommodate emergency vehicles and connect the economically disadvantaged Wilmington community with the Wilmington Waterfront.
- Friends of the Hollywood Central Park — $3.59 million: In partnership with the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks, Healing Hollywood aims to use these community planning grant funds to take the Hollywood Central Park, a cap park over the Hollywood freeway, from a concept design to a shovel-ready project.
- City of Los Angeles — $2 million: This grant will support community planning activities with the aim to create 1.7 acres of new open space in one of the most park-poor areas of the city and remove a high-injury arterial adjacent to a high concentration of elementary schools by closing Wilshire Blvd. to vehicular traffic from Alvarado St. to Carondelet St.
Over the weekend, Mayor Bass announced from Paris, France that the City of Los Angeles has secured $9.34 million in congressionally directed spending to continue confronting the homelessness crisis and making affordable housing more available throughout Los Angeles.