San Diego Association of Governments leadership joined construction crews Thursday as they prepared to complete a project milestone for the Mid-Coast extension of the UC San Diego Blue Line Trolley.
Crews were treated to a lunch ahead of the UTC Transit Center Parking structures' "topping out," which is scheduled for Friday morning. The topping out of a structure is when the final deck is poured and the structure reaches its highest vertical point.
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The parking facility will support the future extension of the Blue Line Trolley, which is set to start service later this year, by providing direct access to the UTC Transit Center and UTC Trolley Station. The structure will be a shared facility for MTS transit riders and Westfield UTC patrons, with 333 spaces dedicated for transit riders and 139 spaces for retail users.
"Today's milestone demonstrates SANDAG's commitment to delivering projects on-time and on-budget," said SANDAG Second Vice Chair and National City Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis.
"The Mid-Coast Corridor is the San Diego region's largest infrastructure project ever and today, we celebrate the dedicated workforce who continued their work throughout the pandemic to safely make it a reality for millions in the years to come," she continued.
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When complete, the UTC parking structure will stand at more than 38 feet tall with four parking levels. It took 6,500 cubic yards of concrete to build the structure. Along with the parking spaces for mall patrons and transit riders, it will feature a bicycle parking facility with space for 40 bikes, electric vehicle charging stations and photovoltaic panels at roof level to power the parking structure.
The $22.6 million UTC parking structure project broke ground in January and is scheduled to be completed in December.
The $2.1 billion Mid-Coast extension of the UC San Diego Blue Line Trolley began construction in 2016 and is billed as the largest infrastructure project in the region's history.
