Dive Brief:
The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority has prepared a 2018 to 2019 budget that includes spending of $6.6 billion, Curbed Los Angeles reported. The budget, which the Metro Board authorized at a meeting on May 24, is the largest in the agency’s history and will take effect on July 1.
Construction projects will eat up about $2 billion of the new Metro budget, with $1.74 billion going toward rail and transit initiatives and $250 million going toward highway projects. The single largest spend will be $980 million for the $2.5 billion second phase of the Purple Line Westside Subway extension. Another $1.8 billion will be spent on operations and maintenance; $493 million for “state of good repair” improvements; almost $1.5 billion to subsidize local transportation agencies and regional rail; $167 million on planning and studying future projects and $417 million to pay off existing Metro debt.
