The Federal Transit Administration has issued its final approval of plans for a $1.72 billion transit line along Crenshaw Boulevard, running from the Green Line near Los Angeles International Airport to the Expo Line, it was announced Wednesday.

The FTA’s Record of Decision gives the Metropolitan Transportation Authority the green light to acquire property, purchase rail cars and move utilities to build the light rail.

The Dec. 30 ruling declares the MTA’s environmental impact report for the project officially in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. It also makes the project eligible for federal funding.

The 8.5-mile Crenshaw/LAX line will be the first to connect a major population center of South Los Angeles to the rest of the MTA’s rail network. The line will connect with the Expo Line on the north end and the Green Line on the south end, serving passengers near Leimert Park, in Inglewood, Hawthorne and El Segundo.

However, it is still unclear whether the line will include a station at Leimert Park Village, an economic and cultural hub of the Black community in South Los Angeles.

At a contentious meeting last May, the MTA board declined to require the station, citing a lack of funding. Instead, the board voted to favor contractors who offer to include the station at the approved total project price tag of $1.72 billion.

\Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa applauded the FTA’s ruling, saying the project will create thousands of badly needed jobs.

The approval “marks a big step forward,” said county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, an MTA board member. “In combination with our targeted hiring effort, this translates into jobs, jobs and more jobs. The Obama administration should be commended for quickly moving this project forward through the environmental process.”

In anticipation of the approval, the MTA in December issued a request for qualifications from companies that can engineer, design and build the project.

However, the line will not connect directly to the airport. It will connect with the Expo Line on the north end and the Green Line, which drops travelers about one-eighth of a mile from the airport, on the south end.

The Crenshaw/LAX line is being funded by Measure R, a half-cent sales tax increase that Los Angeles County voters approved in 2008.
Transit officials said they hope construction will begin this summer, and that the line will be open in late 2018.