The Board of Directors of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, the transportation agency in charge of the Los Angeles to Pasadena Light Rail Gold Line, has estimated a new completion date of late 2025 to early 2026 for the Foothill Gold Line light rail extension. The 12.3-mile, six-station extension will travel from Glendora to Montclair. The previously approved schedule from 2015 had estimated completion in 2023.
“We have a more detailed understanding of this project and how we will build it,” remarked Habib F. Balian, Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority CEO. “It is really two major projects in one – the freight and Metrolink relocation/reconstruction will have to be completed first, followed by construction of the light rail system. And to reduce risk for the future design-build contractor, the first year of the project will be used to relocate utilities and conduct pre-construction activities.”
The updated schedule, which assumes ground breaking in October 2017, is based on reviews completed late last year on the project’s draft advanced conceptual engineering (ACE) documents which refined the project scope.
The authority has also put in place Master Cooperative Agreements (MCAs) with each of the project’s corridor cities, Metrolink and other third parties. This new information, including new constraints agreed to through the MCAs (such as constraints for grade crossing construction and Metrolink station and track relocation, and requirements to build several temporary rail detours), resulted in two years of construction being added to the project schedule.
“This is an important step in our project development process and a natural part of the progression of a major infrastructure project like the Foothill Gold Line as it advances through planning and design,” Balian continued. “Our estimators and scheduling experts were given much more detailed information about the project and construction constraints and created a 7,000-activity construction phasing plan. This is the best information we have to work with until a design-build contractor is hired and provides their plan for the work.”
The Construction Authority Board also approved an updated financial plan for the project based on the new schedule. The latest estimate totals $1,374 million for the six-station Glendora to Montclair extension (including Los Angeles and San Bernardino County construction). This estimate confirms that construction costs in the 2015 estimate remain accurate but the additional two years of work, along with wage increases that will take effect during construction, add about $118 million to the project’s budget estimate.