Foothill Gold Line Update: Latest Updates

Foothill Gold Line Update: Latest Updates

The four-station Glendora to Pomona project segment has now been fully transitioned to Metro. The Construction Authority and KPJV are working closely with Metro’s operations teams as they prepare for passenger service to begin later this year.

As the Authority continues to complete punch list items throughout the 9.1-mile corridor, our team meets weekly with Metro and supports their efforts to conduct final systems integration testing, safety and occupancy certification processes, punchlist walks, final paperwork, among many activities that need to take place before Metro can put the extension into service. This is a critical stage of work for the project, and I am happy to report that it is going very well. Metro has not yet announced a date for the opening, but all is moving forward on schedule.

As part of their ongoing preparatory work, Metro recently conducted emergency drills and safety education for their team and area first responders. The onsite activities took place at multiple locations on multiple days, and included general education, drills at a street crossing and at a station. More drills will take place in the months ahead. Below are a few photos from the recent drills (top row):

Additionally, the Authority continues our work to prepare the Pomona to Montclair segment for construction. As shown in the bottom photos above, crews recently were out in Pomona and Claremont conducting utility potholing. The resulting information will be used to support the final engineering for the project. As an update on the ongoing procurement, the Authority received Kiewit’s formal proposal in late February. It is under review by six committees of transportation and industry experts, attorneys, financial professionals and partner agencies. Each committee is reviewing different elements of the proposal and will soon provide their overall ratings and recommendations.

As the agency awaits Kiewit’s “Best and Final Offer” for the work, we are aware that this is a difficult time to be receiving a bid. There is currently tremendous economic uncertainty both nationally and locally impacting the contracting community. While we read news stories daily about the current economic reality, last week the Associated General Contractors of America’s chief economist provided the Authority board of directors an update on what he is seeing in the marketplace. His presentation was sobering and highlighted numerous factors increasing risk and cost for contractors, including increasing wages due to insufficient supply of workers, increasing prices for materials and services that started before the recently announced tariffs, as well as longer lead times for receiving materials. He also discussed how the current tariffs and immigration policies are exacerbating the issues and hitting the contracting industry hard, especially in California.

Ultimately, the price proposal, team’s qualifications and overall plan to manage and build the project will be evaluated as part of the current review process, and I will make a recommendation to the board in the weeks ahead.

The Journey Continues,

Habib