MONROVIA, CA — The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority (Construction Authority) announces that the $1.5 billion, four-station Foothill Gold Line light rail project from Glendora to Pomona reached substantial completion on time and on budget. The design-build contract was completed by Kiewit-Parsons, a Joint Venture (KPJV), over the last five years and included all elements of the 9.1-mile light rail project.
The $906.5 million contract included design and construction of the four new light rail stations and associated multi-modal parking facilities, the new light rail systems (including track, power, train control, communications, and safety equipment), 9 miles of relocated freight track that initially sat in the middle of the now-shared rail corridor, 19 bridges (including four new light rail bridges that span major city streets and intersections in Glendora and San Dimas), 21 at-grade street crossings, 10 miles of decorative sound and retaining walls, corridor-wide fencing to prevent trespassing, testing of the line and new systems, and more.
"The Kiewit-Parsons team did an outstanding job designing and constructing the light rail project, despite significant and unprecedented challenges," Construction Authority CEO Habib F. Balian said. "It is unusual for a large infrastructure project to come in on time and on budget, but KPJV was partners with the Construction Authority from the start and found ways to innovate and keep the project moving through the COVID-19 pandemic, historic heat waves, and historic rains. I am pleased to say that we not only completed the project on time and on budget, we ended as partners."
Reaching substantial completion means that the Foothill Gold Line from Glendora to Pomona — which is adding new Metro A Line stations in the cities of Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, and Pomona — is now ready to be turned over to Metro for final testing, training of operators and other crews, emergency and safety preparations, pre-revenue operations and simulated revenue service, and final approvals by the California Public Utilities Commission, among other tasks that will take place in the months ahead. This milestone follows months of testing of the new systems by the Construction Authority and KPJV, and determination that the new extension is safe to operate. An opening date has not yet been determined; Metro will announce the date in the future.
"Reaching substantial completion is an important achievement for the entire team at the Construction Authority, Metro, our contractors, and our corridor cities," Balian said. "We are proud to be the first light rail project funded by Measure M to have broken ground and to now be completed, and we look forward to handing the project over to Metro as they prepare to put the extension on-line later this year."
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The design-build contract for the Foothill Gold Line from Glendora to Pomona was executed in October 2019, and major construction on the project began in July 2020 after several months of final design work. Over the last five years of design and construction, the team logged more than 2.6 million work hours and completed the project with an excellent safety record.
LA County's Measure M half-cent sales tax provided the majority of funding for the project, along with nearly $100 million of residual funds from the Measure R half-cent sales tax not used to complete the now-operational Pasadena to Azusa segment. Additionally, the project was awarded a nearly $300 million grant through CalSTA's Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) in 2018. The majority of the TIRCP grant funds have been used to complete the Glendora to Pomona segment, with approximately $40 million set aside for the final project segment from Pomona to Montclair.
In 2021, the project was also awarded a $650,000 grant from CalRecycle to use tire-derived aggregate as part of the project. As a result, approximately 548,200 tires were recycled and utilized to reduce noise in areas along the project corridor where noise impacts were identified and could be reduced through this effort.
