Beginning this Saturday, January 26, work will begin on major improvements to the Blue Line, Metro’s oldest light rail line. This includes closure of 21 stations through September. The alternative will be to use one of three bus shuttle services that run between downtown Long Beach and the downtown Los Angeles 7 ^th Street Metro station.

“If the shuttle provides solid service I will go with that,” says External Affairs’ Kevin McLaughlin , who has been riding the Blue Line for 26 years. “Otherwise, the Silver Line appears to offer a reliable express route that other Met employees say works well.”

“We encourage employees impacted by the shutdown to explore alternatives such as vanpools or the Silver Line which leaves from the Harbor Gateway Station in Carson,” says Rideshare Services’ Madeline Wong . Call the Rideshare Hotline at 77920 if you have questions.

With long-term plans to upgrade and prepare for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the shutdown will provide:



Engineering Services and Water System Operations staff welcomed the New Year with a shutdown and urgent relining project. On January 2, traffic control was set up on Del Amo Blvd. in the city of Torrance to reline 400 feet of the Sepulveda Feeder. The following day, WSO crews were onsite to dewater about six miles of the feeder.

The work was prompted by inspections in August 2018 that revealed several distressed segments of prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) within the feeder. The project team developed an accelerated timeline to repair this portion of the feeder, taking advantage of the only window in 2019 available for an unscheduled shutdown. In just four months, Engineering Services was able to design and award a construction contract. Work then began and the pipeline repair was completed ahead of schedule.

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Denise Allen , Project Manager, identified key staff as Monique O’Dwyer , Spec Writer; Angelo Reginaldo and Ezequiel Montanez , Design Managers; Ana Reyes , Environmental Planning; Lizeth Martinez , External Affairs; Carl Allen , Shalia Coburn , Jeremy Mercer, and Jarrod Bricker , Construction Management; and Fred Crawford and Carlos Morales, WSO.

The 42-mile Sepulveda Feeder delivers treated water from the Jensen plant in Granada Hills to an interconnection with the Second Lower Feeder in Torrance. 

At an early age, Max Parubrub was inspired to become a pilot when he watched radio controlled model fighter planes speed into the balmy skies at Bellows Air Force Station in Waimanalo, Hawaii. In the end, he took a different career path, but the passion to fly never left him.

Max became involved in model aviation and is a skilled RC flyer. Today, his garage holds more than 30 types of model aircraft ranging from trainers, to sport planes, to jets and quad copters. His knowledge and experience qualified him to become one of three pilots authorized to fly unmanned aerial vehicles for Metropolitan.

Max started at Met in 1992 as a programmer analyst. He currently serves as a database administrator in IT. He provides primary database application support for the WINS, IESWTR, PDR, Lab Sheet and ESL, and secondary database systems support for PeopleSoft and Oracle OEM and RMAN. 

Aside from his database duties, he says he is fortunate to be part of Metropolitan's UAV program, which often takes him into the field to learn about other parts of the District.

Although the possibility of flying real planes has passed for Max , piloting RC planes for fun and UAVs for Metropolitan satisfies his desire to fly. In his spare time, he also enjoys motorcycling, videography, gaming, surfing and many other outdoor activities.