The entire project was approved at the Metro Board of Directors meeting on April 26, 2012, and construction has been separated into three sections.

Combined, these three sections will add nearly 9 miles (14 km) of heavy rail service to the cities of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.

[10] Section 3 advanced utility relocation pre-groundbreaking work began in February 2018 for the future Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA Hospital stations.

[13] Currently, the line is planned to run between Wilshire/Western and Westwood/VA Hospital, with tail tracks that could allow for future expansion farther west.

Early plans for regional Metro Rail envisioned a rapid-transit route between Downtown and the Westside, with a branch going north on Fairfax to Hollywood and into the San Fernando Valley.

[15] In 1961, the "New Proposed Backbone Route Plan" described a subway along Wilshire Boulevard from Westwood to Downtown (and then elevated to El Monte).

For decades, the route was mired in political and socioeconomic debate, with politicians giving vent to anti-subway sentiments and NIMBY isolationism.

"[18] This zone stretched on either side of Wilshire Boulevard from Hancock Park to the west of Fairfax (through areas of his district where subway opposition was strongest).

Subsequently, any plans for a subway west of Western Avenue diverted the line south around the methane zone, using Crenshaw, Pico, and San Vicente Boulevards.

Disagreements arose between Metro and Tutor-Saliba (general contractor on the project) over tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns.

In 2000, an urban art group called Heavy Trash placed signs advertising a fictional "Aqua Line."

Although the campaign was a hoax, it demonstrated newfound support and revealed the frustrations surrounding the lack of a subway connecting Santa Monica and the Westside with Downtown Los Angeles.

During the 2000s, support for the subway began to materialize, largely due to the massive impact of traffic on Wilshire Boulevard and throughout the region.

[23] In September 2006, both Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA joined the council's Mass Transit Committee to advocate for the subway extension.

[26] Congressmember Henry Waxman's legislation to lift the ban on tunneling through the "methane zone" finally became law in December 2007 as part of the 2008 omnibus spending bill.

In 2009, the Wilshire Subway Extension was included in Metro's Long Range Transportation Plan, and environmental studies were begun.

They were added to reflect the realities of limited available funds and the priorities in Metro's Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).

[38] Due to protests from Beverly Hills residents and local officials, the Metro Board approved an amendment requesting a detailed study and comparison of the two Century City station options in the FEIR.

A Metro presentation dated October 29, 2013, shows the approved route to the Westwood Veteran's Administration Medical Center and the Section 1 segment to La Cienega had commenced.

[41] BHUSD Board of Education President Lisa Korbatov objected to the placement of the subway tunnel underneath Beverly Hills High School between the Wilshire/Rodeo and Century City/Constellation stations, noting that the district had planned to construct new buildings and a below-ground parking lot precisely where the tunnel would impact the high school's property.

Korbatov claimed that Metro did not adequately study the route to the Constellation Boulevard station and said it could pose a safety risk to students, citing no sources.

[43] BHUSD and Beverly Hills interest groups, after spending $10 million on the lawsuit through August 2017, lost the appeal to prevent Metro from contracting with the FTA for the subway project.

Metro's response to the new lawsuit stated they had complied and the supplemental environmental in Beverly Hills and the Century City/Constellation station met all legal requirements.

That additional analysis confirmed they could safely build the project, including the portion beneath Beverly Hills High School.

[46] As recently as October 2018, Lisa Korbatov and other members of the BHUSD maintained the district was continuing their litigious action against Metro and the Purple Line Extension construction project.

Metro had declined mediation in the past, citing they had always complied with the DEIR/EIR results and previous environmental review studies added by the courts.

[52] The federal government provided a $1.25 billion "New Starts" grant and an $856 million infrastructure loan, with the remainder of the budget from Measure R funds.

These two stages were contingent on receiving the final federal full funding grant agreements (FFGA) approved by Congress in 2016.

Metro needed "Letters of No-Prejudice" from the USDOT FTA for tunneling before October 2018, as it would have delayed the project's approved schedule.

[63] In February 2019, Metro approved the project's overall $3.6 billion budget and officially awarded contractor Tutor Perini the design/build contract.