01:54 PM EDT on Friday, May 19, 2006

By CORETTA ROBINSON / 6NEWS
E-mail Coretta: CRobinson@WCNC.com

6NEWS

Crews said the light rail bride over Woodlawn and Tyvola is 95 percent complete.

It has been about a year since work started on the south corridor light rail line and project managers provided an update to the progress being made.

Construction of the 10 mile rail line began last spring. The progress is visible at Woodlawn and Tyvola running parallel to South Boulevard. The area has definitely changed with the addition of the light rail bridge. Crews said the bridge's structure is about 95 percent complete.

Changes are also being made to intersections along South Boulevard to help riders and pedestrians to get to the rail stations.

Managers described some of the changes they're making at the intersection of South Boulevard and Woodlawn.

"We're providing pedestrian enhancements, also bicycle enhancements and vehicular enhancements. You can see behind me we've added eight foot wide sidewalks to make it a little more comfortable for people to get around. So we've added an eight foot wide planting strips and we're going to put in pedestrian lighting," said project manager Dieter Crago.

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Managers hope to get people out of their cars and onto the light rail line with those new enhancements. They are also encouraging ridership by adding a parking lot for 300 cars at the Old Pineville Road station so commuters can park and ride from that location.

The project is expected to be complete by fall of 2007 and experts expect that it will be used by about 9,100 people.