Following months of legal delays, bids are finally being solicited from engineers and contractors to build the highly touted Alameda Corridor project.
The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) on Aug. 15 to solicit design and construction teams for the middle section of the corridor a 20-mile, high-speed railroad line designed to speed cargo from the seaports to the railyards and distribution centers near downtown Los Angeles.
The mid-corridor section represents the heart of the project. It is a 10-mile trench of depressed railway running along Alameda Street, beginning at Santa Fe Avenue in L.A. and continuing south to state Route 91 in Compton.
The concrete trench will be about 50 feet wide and 30 feet deep, and will include two railroad and 26 highway overcrossings. The mid-corridor project is expected to cost between $500 million and $700 million, according to Gill Hicks, general manager of the Transportation Authority.
The entire corridor project which also involves a number of grade separations and railroad bridges at its northern and southern ends as well as the widening of Alameda Street for increased truck traffic is projected to cost about $1.8 billion and is scheduled for completion in 2001.
In order to meet that deadline, the project’s construction and design functions will be performed simultaneously.
Given the project’s high visibility not to mention its price tag it’s no surprise that some of the nation’s top engineering muscle is lining up for a shot at the contract.
“We’re used to working on the high-pressure spotlight projects,” said Mo Hayes, vice president of business development for Parsons Transportation Group in Pasadena, which recently headed the design-build of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, a 17-mile toll road in Orange County, and is preparing a bid for the Alameda Corridor trench. “It’s going to be working under the microscope.”
Other bidders include teams led by Bechtel Corp., Brown & Root and Flatiron Corp, said Hicks.
While the trench itself is not likely to pose many engineering challenges, the winner of the contract will have its hands full relocating utility lines along the route. According to Hicks, there are 150 separate phone, gas, electrical, and fuel lines that will be disrupted during the corridor’s construction.
The statements of qualifications are due Sept. 30. Qualified teams will be issued a Request for Proposals in January 1998. One design-build team will be selected for the project, which is expected to be awarded in September 1998.
The RFQs come after months of legal battles between the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority and a number of the small cities along the corridor’s route, which fear that construction will wreak havoc with local traffic patterns and exact a heavy toll on retail and other commercial activity.
As a result, the cities have been demanding that the ports of L.A. and Long Beach which are financing the bulk of the endeavor provide funds to mitigate the negative effects of the corridor’s construction.
Four of those cities Vernon, Compton, Lynwood and South Gate have been involved in a protracted lawsuit against the ports over the issue. That suit is currently awaiting appeal before the state Supreme Court.
Last month, the ports reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Huntington Park over the issue.
The Transportation Authority won another victory Aug. 18, when a Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed a separate claim by Lynwood challenging the project’s environmental report and ordered the city to pay the agency some $240,000 in attorney fees.
