$202-million Colton Crossing project gets key OK

A Colton, Calif., railroad overpass meant to unclog a crowded Southern California freight corridor has been approved by a key state panel, ending a two-month logjam that jeopardized the $202-million project, The Press-Enterprise reports. The California Transportation Commission on May 19 unanimously agreed to spend $91 million in state transportation bond money to build the Colton Crossing. The decision also frees $33.8 million in federal stimulus money for the project.

State commissioners
signed off on an agreement that will ease automobile traffic, provide noise
relief to Colton residents and expand commuter train service in the Inland
area.

The overpass will untie a
128-year-old intersection where Union Pacific tracks and BNSF lines cross.
Trains wait daily as cross-traffic makes its way in and out of Southern
California, spewing diesel emissions into a Colton neighborhood.

Both railroads have long
sought federal and state money to separate the lines. The project was
recommended to receive $97.3 million from the Prop. 1B transportation bond
state voters approved in 2006, but it wasn’t until the railroads were selected
to receive federal stimulus money earlier this year that the project gained
momentum.

With both state and
federal money in place, the railroads moved forward with plans for the
overpass, which will raise the east-west Union Pacific tracks over the
north-south BNSF line. The railroads will pay $73.2 million for the project.

But local and state
officials remained wary of the project because it appeared to benefit the railroads
more than the public, although the public is paying most of the cost. State
transportation commissioners in March rejected an earlier deal and directed the
railroads and Southern California Transportation officials to try again.

That led to seven weeks
of hasty negotiations between railroad and regional transportation officials.

Commissioner Joseph
Tavaglione of Riverside called the agreement "a great deal" that is
fair to all parties, including taxpayers.

"I would not have
voted for it if I didn’t think it was something that we really need," he
said after the vote. "It’ll do a lot for the cities. There are a lot of
folks over there who are breathing that stuff."

Tavaglione added that he
also didn’t want to lose the $33.8 million in federal money. That would set the
project back years, he said. "I’m happy to see it all put together and put
to bed."

The project is expected
to create more than 900 jobs when construction starts in late 2011, officials
said.

The agreement signed
earlier this month between the railroads and the Southern California Consensus
Group — a consortium of regional transportation agencies — includes
provisions that officials said will give drivers and Colton residents relief.

A separate agreement
between the railroads, Colton officials and San Bernardino Associated
Governments outlines plans for an automobile underpass at Laurel Avenue, north
of Interstate 10, and improvements along the BNSF tracks that will allow trains
to pass through the residential area without blowing their horns.

"The concerns of the
residents were mainly noise," said Colton Mayor Kelly Chastain.

Abandoning a rail spur
along the Union Pacific tracks south of I-10 near Ninth Street is another
important change, Chastain said.

"That’s major because
the trains would sit there and kids would cross there," she said, noting
how children climbed between the parked railcars.

Colton will also close
off E and H streets at the railroad tracks to eliminate vehicle crossings.

Easing the bottleneck by
building the overpass will allow for more commuter trains in the Inland area,
something regional transportation officials said was a must-have in any Colton
Crossing deal. Metrolink trains use Union Pacific and BNSF tracks to travel
around the region but are limited to certain times to avoid conflicts with
freight traffic.

Local transportation
officials have said any increase in the number of trains that can pass through
the area must include increases in passenger train use.

Railroad and regional
transportation officials last month agreed to divert more than $6 million from
the Prop. 1B money to rail safety programs in Southern California as part of
the overall project agreement.

Reaching the agreement
and getting support from transportation officials from coastal Southern
California counties required additional concessions from San Bernardino
transportation officials.

The sour economy has
limited how much bond money the state has to spend. Fearing the Colton Crossing
would consume tens of millions of dollars when work begins in 2011,
transportation officials in Southern California sought assurances that other
projects would not face delays waiting on state funds.

To ease those worries,
San Bernardino County transportation officials agreed to pull the Devore
interchange — a massive redesign of the Interstate 15/Interstate 215 merger
north of San Bernardino — from the state bond program. The $400 million
project had been set to receive $118 million from Prop. 1B bond proceeds.

By the time work begins in
Devore, officials said they are hopeful Colton Crossing will be helping
commuters and freight flow through Southern California.