Elsie and Soyeon have arrived: Our 1,000-ton TBMs reach major milestone in L.A.

In Beverly Hills, California the two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) on our Westside Subway Extension Phase 1 (Westside Subway) project have reached Wilshire/La Cienega subway station. Since October 2018, Elsie and Soyeon—our 1,000-ton, 400-foot long TBMs—have excavated miles of soil and rock 70 feet below Los Angeles (LA). This most recent milestone means that construction on the Westside Subway project is now 70 percent complete, with more than 98 percent of tunneling safely completed.

Learn more about this exciting milestone here.

Milestone alert! Our 1,000-ton, 400-foot long TBMs, Elsie and Soyeon, have reached the Wilshire/La Cienega station site. Elsie set off in October 2018, moving four inches a minute, excavating soil and rock, which is placed on a conveyer belt and then loaded onto trucks and hauled away. Soyeon was also launched in 2018, which has run simultaneously with Elsie to keep the project on track.

Once completed in 2023, this massive project will provide an alternative transportation option for about 286,000 transit riders. In 2019, the project earned Envision Platinum certification for the benefits it is bringing the community and its sustainable achievements like innovative biofiltration and infiltration basins. (Photo credit: LA Metro)

The Westside Subway project is a 3.9-mile underground subway extension project, with three underground stations connecting downtown LA to Beverly Hills. The project runs along the Wilshire Blvd. corridor, through LA’s historical Miracle Mile, passing the LA County Museum of Art, the Petersen Automotive Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits.