Foothill Gold Line’s conceptual engineering plans up for review

Written by Kyra Senese, Managing Editor

The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority’s board of directors approved advanced conceptual engineering (ACE) plans for the Foothill Gold Line light-rail project from Glendora to Montclair, Calif.

 

Also known as the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority, the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority is an independent transportation planning, design and construction agency.

Engineering work for the $15 million project started in fall 2014, and officials say it required about 35,000 logged hours for crews to complete the 12.3-mile, six-station project.

The agency says construction of the new extension costs an estimated $1.2 billion, the majority of which is expected to materialize from Measure M, a half-cent sales tax being proposed within the November 2016 ballot by Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA).

The agency says the board’s approval of the ACE documents is representative of a “major milestone” in the authority’s work to prepare the $1.2 billion light-rail section for construction as early as the start of 2017. The work is part of the last project phase before the project can move on to the design-build stage.

“[The] approval is the culmination of more than two years of work, which brought the design level for the project to about 30 percent [completion], with some elements designed to 50 percent,” said Habib F. Balian, CEO of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority. “That is the level we believe is appropriate to allow future design-build teams a good understanding of the project, so they can limit the contingency added to the bid price for unknowns; and also allows the cities and our partner agencies the details they need to prepare for the project.” 

The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority’s next steps include distributing the draft documents to the corridor cities and key agencies, including LACMTA, Metrolink and the San Bernardino Associated Governments, for a 60-day review and feedback phase. Feedback garnered through the process will be incorporated into a verification set for a final review in spring 2017, the agency says.

The agency says its ACE documents hold more than 700 pages of engineering plans detailing 14 categories of project elements, including designs for the stations and their accompanying parking facilities, 24 grade-separated bridge structures, 24 at-grade crossings, improved safety and communications systems and more. The ACE documents also explain plans for the location of the freight track relocation to allow for two new light-rail tracks to be added.

“We have taken lessons learned from the first two segments of the line and integrated them into the design for the Glendora to Montclair segment,” Balian explained. “All stations will be accessible from all sides, all will have center platforms for ease-of-use—we will be building four times the number of parking spaces than the last segment and we will install fare gates at each station—to mention a few of the improvements.”

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