"The authority board awarded the contract to the Kiewit Parsons team in July 2011 with a limited scope of design and pre-construction activities," said construction authority CEO Habib Balian. "Today's action gives the contractor the go-ahead to complete the entire project and keeps us on schedule for construction completion in 2015."

In July, the construction authority was in the process of working to meet two major conditions placed on the project by Metro, which limited the availability of funds. The authority issued the Interim Notice to Proceed at that time to allow the contractor to begin work on the design and pre-construction phases of the project, while the authority continued work to meet the two funding conditions. The first condition, BNSF's abandonment of the rail right-of-way west of Irwindale was completed in February. The second condition, full control over more than 50 percent of the land needed for the project's 24-acre maintenance facility, was met late last month.