Category Archives: Projects

Public celebrates completion of new Gold Line Bridge in Arcadia

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Congress Members Grace Napolitano, left, and Judy Chu at the ceremony for the completion of the bridge. Immediately behind them are Metro Board Chairman Michael D. Antonovich, left, and Metro Board Member John Fasana.

Congress Members Grace Napolitano, left, and Judy Chu at the ceremony for the completion of the bridge. Immediately behind them are Metro Board Chairman Michael D. Antonovich, left, and Metro Board Member John Fasana.

While out of town over the weekend, I missed the public debut of the new Gold Line Bridge over the eastbound lanes of the 210 freeway in Arcadia. The 584-foot bridge will carry the Gold Line Foothill Extension between Pasadena and the Azusa/Glendora border.

Here is the news release issed bout the event by the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority, the agency building the line:

Largest Single, Public Art/Transit Infrastructure Project in California Completed

Landmark Gold Line Bridge Features Distinctive Design by Award-winning Public Artist Andrew Leicester

MONROVIA, Calif.— The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority (Construction Authority) marked the completion of the landmark Gold Line Bridge by giving guests a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk across the largest, single public art/transit infrastructure project in California, the 584-linear foot sculpture that will serve as the Gateway to the San Gabriel Valley.

The Gold Line Bridge spans the eastbound lanes of the I-210 freeway northeast of Los Angeles and is the most visible element of the 11.5-mile Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension light rail project the Construction Authority is building between Pasadena and Azusa.

A view of the bridge looking west, where the Foothill Extension tracks will run in the freeway median. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

A view of the bridge looking west, where the Foothill Extension tracks will run in the freeway median. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

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Metro Board Members Antonio Villaraigosa and Pam O’Connor announce start of utility relocation work on Regional Connector

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DSC_0221

Photo by Luiz Inzunza/Metro

This morning, Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Member Antonio Villaraigosa, Santa Monica Mayor and Metro Board Member Pam O’Connor, City Coucil Member Jose Huizar and Metro CEO Art Leahy joined other Metro officials and downtown business leaders to announce the start of utility relocation work to prepare for construction of the Regional Connector.

Photo by Luis Inzunza/Metro

Photo by Luis Inzunza/Metro

The full press release from Metro:

In the latest milestone toward the delivery of Measure R transit projects to county residents, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) today officially began advance utility relocation work for the Regional Connector, a major light rail project in Downtown Los Angeles. 

Utility crews have begun relocating existing underground telecommunication lines on Spring Street near the planned 2nd/Broadway rail station.  Work will begin Friday, December 14, and will continue through April 2013. Work will take place on 2nd Street, between Hill and Main Street.  Additional work will take place on Broadway between 1st and 3rd Streets; Spring Street between 1st and 3rd Streets; and Hill Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets.

The $1.367 billion Regional Connector project, partially funded with $160 million in Measure R sales tax money approved by voters in 2008, is considered one of the region’s most significant transit projects.  The nearly two-mile project will enhance Metro Rail service by providing one continuous trip between Azusa and Long Beach, and between the Eastside and Santa Monica. This project essentially creates two major regional light rail transit lines for Los Angeles County: A north/south line from Azusa to Long Beach, and an east/west line from East Los Angeles to Santa Monica.   In so doing, it minimizes the need for transfers, reducing one-way light rail trip times across the County by 10 to 20 minutes or more.  Eleven intersections also will be improved, including at 1st/Alameda Streets, which will see improved performance and less congestion.

“Today’s advance utility work in Downtown Los Angeles marks the beginning of an improved, integrated transit system for the entire county,” said Michael D. Antonovich, L.A. County Supervisor and Metro Board Chair. “The light rail connections made by this project will link the Gold Line, Blue Line and Expo Lines, catalyze the entire Metro Rail system, and better prepare Metro to meet the demands of its expanding transit system.”

Transit passengers will have access to three new stations in Downtown Los Angeles: 1st/Central, 2nd/Broadway, and 2nd/Hope.  The new stations are estimated to provide access to 88,200 daily users, including approximately 17,700 new transit riders. 

“The Regional Connector will connect transit riders from East LA to Santa Monica and from the San Gabriel Valley to Long Beach – without a single transfer,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “This vital project puts us one step closer to building the connected regional transportation system that Angelenos want and deserve.”

The Federal Transit Administration recently permitted the Regional Connector project to advance into its Final Design phase.  Metro intends to seek a Full Funding Grant Agreement through FTA’s New Starts Program next year, which would constitute a federal matching contribution to the project. Metro estimates construction of the tunnel and new stations could begin in late 2013.  The project, if fully funded, could open in 2019.

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation forecasts that the Regional Connector project will create 15,400 jobs (direct, indirect and induced), $890 million in labor income, and $2.38 billion in business revenue generated by the project in the Southern California region.

For more information about the Regional Connector project, visit metro.net/regionalconnector.

About Measure R

Measure R, approved by two-thirds of L.A. County voters in 2008, commits a projected $40 billion to traffic relief and transportation upgrades throughout the county over the next 30 years.  This sales tax measure will help fund dozens of critical transit and highway projects, create more than 210,000 new construction jobs and infuse an estimated $32 billion back into the local economy, according to estimates by the nonprofit Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

Metro Board of Directors meeting is underway

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The Board met in closed session earlier this morning and the public portion of the meeting kicked off a few minutes ago. Here’s the agenda.

It will likely be a long meeting. Those who want to listen in — sorry, there’s no webstream — can do so by phoning 213-922-6045.

In his opening remarks, Metro Board Chair Mike Antonovich asked for a report from Metro staff next month on the reliability of the Silver Line, saying he has received some complaints from customers about waits at stations along the Harbor Freeway Transitway.

Metro lauded in federal "leaner and greener" report

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Click above to download the report!

Each weekday, there are about 1.5 million boardings on Metro buses and trains across Los Angeles County. It takes a lot of energy to move all those people; fuel is needed for buses while electricity powers trains and Metro’s many facilities across Los Angeles County.

In the past few years, however, Metro has made serious inroads into making sustainability and the environment among the agency’s top concerns. Metro has managed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, expand renewable energy it generates, assemble the largest clean fuel bus fleet in the nation and become the first transit agency in the U.S. to adopt a Green Construction Policy to reduce emissions from construction equipment.

It was for these reasons and others that received some welcome news in late November when a new report titled “Leaner and Greener” by the Federal Highway Administration and the American Assn. of State Highway and Transportation Officials singled out Metro as the prime example of a transportation agency putting sustainability at the forefront.

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Gold Line Foothill Extension Bridge is complete!

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A 584-foot bridge over the eastbound lanes of the 210 freeway — the first major piece of infrastructure for the Gold Line Foothill Extension — is now complete, on time and on budget. The media had their chance to see the bridge this morning and a public ceremony will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. until noon at Newcastle Park in Arcadia (101 W. Colorado Boulevard).

The Foothill Extension will extend the Gold Line from its final station in Pasadena for 11.5 miles to the Azusa/Glendora border, near both Citrus College and Azusa Pacific University. The new $18.6-million bridge will take the two train tracks from the middle of the 210 freeway across the eastbound lanes to the south side of the freeway.

The project will have one set of tracks in each direction and is being built atop an old freight railroad right-of-way. An old bridge that spanned the 210 was demolished because of seismic concerns following the 1993 Northridge earthquake.

The concept and design for the new bridge was conceived by Andrew Leicester, who told the media that he wanted to build a structure that served as a gateway to the San Gabriel Valley. The San Gabriel Mountain foothills have long been an important travel corridor in Southern California, beginning with Native Americans and continuing to the advent of Route 66 and, later, the 210 freeway. Leicester said the 25-foot-tall baskets on the bridge commemorate the main tool Native Americans used in their travels.

Habib Balian, the CEO of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority, said that 92 percent of the materials used to construct the bridge were manufactured in Southern California.

Skanksa USA was the contractor that built the bridge; architecture and engineering was done by AECOM.

The Construction Authority is an independent agency building the line that will be operated by Metro. The project is funded by Measure R, the sales tax increase approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008.

Agenda posted for Thursday's meeting of the Metro Board of Directors

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Metro December 2012 agenda.

Here’s the agenda for the final Metro Board of Directors’ meeting of 2012. The public portion of the meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday at Metro HQ adjacent to Union Station. Members of the public, as always, are welcome to attend; the meeting is in the Board Room on the 3rd floor. Those who can’t attend can also listen to the meeting over the phone by calling 213-922-6045.

I’m guessing it will be a loooong meeting. Among the items to be discussed are a contract with CBS Outdoors to sell advertising on Metro properties (the Board couldn’t muster the votes to approve it when it was discussed earlier in the fall), a presentation on Metro’s safety culture and a discussion over how to proceed on America Fast Forward now that Measure J has lost.

Metro sends inquiry to Washington about use of TIFIA loans for two projects

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TIFIA letter of interest

Perhaps the most notable part of the last federal transportation bill was a significant expansion of a federal loan program called TIFIA. In essence, the program uses the federal government’s credit to provide favorable loans for transportation projects in the United States.

If Measure J had passed, Metro was hoping to use TIFIA loans to accelerate projects and then pay back the loans with future Measure J revenues. But J lost very narrowly at the polls, so Metro is now pursuing a TIFIA loan to help pay for the first phase of the Westside Subway Extension to La Cienega Boulevard and the Regional Connector.

The TIFIA loans would not be used to accelerate either of those projects. The TIFIA loans, however, could prove to be better than other loans or bonds the agency was planning to use to help finance both projects.

One other thing worth noting: It was lobbying by Metro Board Members and then Metro Boar Chair Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that helped get the TIFIA program expanded as part of the America Fast Forward program. Metro will likely be seeking another expansion of that in the next transportation bill and putting TIFIA loans to good use now sends a clear message to Congress that these programs are important.

Expo Line 2 construction notice: Sepulveda utility relocation work

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Click above to see larger.

Here’s the latest construction notice for the second phase of the Expo Line, a Measure R-funded project.

Below is a photo taken by Expo Line Fan of a support structure under construction that will carry the Expo Line tracks over Sepulveda Boulevard. Expo Line Fan has a ton of construction pics on his Flickr page.

Photo by Expo Line Fan.

Transportation headlines, Monday, Dec. 10

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

Happy property tax day, Source readers!

ART OF TRANSIT: does the sign make it clear enough? Photo by Martin Deutsch, via Flickr creative commons.

The cracks in the nation’s foundation (N.Y. Times) 

This strong editorial pleas with Congress to get off its duff and fix the nation’s ailing infrastructure. Excerpts:

The need for investment in public works, never more urgent, has become a casualty of Washington’s ideological wars. Republicans were once reliable partners in this kind of necessary spending. But since President Obama spent about 12 percent of the 2009 stimulus on transportation, energy and other infrastructure programs, Republicans have made it a policy to demonize these kinds of investments.

When the president asked recently for a modest $50 billion for transportation improvements in the “fiscal cliff” talks, Republicans literally laughed out loud. There will be no stimulus in any deal, said Representative Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, the incoming chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. (snip)

The president’s $50 billion proposal for highways, rail, mass transit and aviation, hard as it will be to achieve, is only a slim down payment on the real job. (He proposed the same package last year as part of the American Jobs Act, which Republicans ignored.) Most estimates put the cost of basic repairs at more than $2 trillion, and that does not even include long-range upgrades to the electrical grid, storm protection and mass transit.

Around the country, ridership on transit has grown significantly since the 1990s, but federal investments have fallen far short. The Transportation Department says that if $18 billion were spent every year — 40 percent more than is being spent now — transit systems might get to a state of good repair by 2028. But that does not include spending to improve service or keep up with growth, or to protect systems like New York’s from storm damage. (The city’s subway system needs $4.8 billion just to recover from Hurricane Sandy.)

House transportation chair: build light rail to LAX or else! (KPCC) 

Outgoing House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Florida) says he’ll try to torpedo some L.A. transit projects unless light rail is extended to LAX — sooner rather than later. The project is currently under study and scheduled to be complete in 2028 under Metro’s long-range plan. It would have been accelerated under Measure J, which fell .56 percentage points short at the polls. Of course, getting the project done will require help from Los Angeles World Airports, a city of Los Angeles agency that needs to environmentally clear the project and make a financial contribution.

 

Transportation headlines, Friday, Dec. 7

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LaHood defends California high-speed rail plan (The Hill) 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spent Thursday trying to persuade House Republicans to appropriate money for California’s bullet train plan. Republicans say the train is too expensive and won’t attract private investors; LaHood says it certainly won’t get private dollars if no government money is forthcoming.

Our view: give toll road drivers a break (Daily News)

The editorial board of the Daily News says fines incurred by motorists who use the ExpressLanes on the 110 without a transponder should be forgiven until after the holidays. The Daily News also says that 12,000-plus citations issued in the first three weeks of the ExpressLanes is proof Metro needs to do more outreach.

Turning Measure J’s defeat into victory (Move LA)

The transit activist group has a nice piece on their website explaining that Measure J was essentially a Plan B to accelerate transit projects. Plan A was to persuade Congress to fully adopt the America Fast Forward program, which consists of both federally-backed loans and a bond program that supplies lenders with valuable credits to lower their taxes. The loan program was adopted by Congress but Republicans had issues with the bond part — and the bond part, quite frankly, had the potential to supply more dollars to agencies such as Metro. In the post-presidential election world, however, Republicans may be reconsidering the bond program as a way to have a jobs strategy and reduce direct government spending on transit projects. We’ll see!