As a result, the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority will not be able to meet an Oct. 7 deadline to add the project onto the current contract with the Gold Line’s design-build contractor, a joint venture of Omaha, Neb.-based Kiewit Corp. and Centreville, Va.-based Parsons Corp.
If and when the extra funding materializes, the authority will have to put the project up for bid again.
“The construction authority is evaluating the budget and schedule implications of the deferral and preparing for a new procurement,” Habib Balian, chief executive of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, said in a Sept. 9 letter to project stakeholders.
This is the latest setback for the 3.3-mile segment of the Foothill Gold Line, also known as the L Line, at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County.
The light rail project was originally bid as a single 12-mile contract to connect Glendora and Montclair, but rising construction costs drove up bid prices, outstripping the roughly $850 million budget. In fall 2018, the construction authority split the project into two parts, moving up construction for the first 9-mile section by a year but setting aside the remaining 3 miles unless and until the extra $360 million in funds became available.
When the $805 million contract with Kiewit-Parsons joint venture was signed in 2019, it included a clause that allowed the 3-mile extension work to be added if the funds materialized.
Since then, as construction costs have continued to rise, the cost of that extension has gone up another 50% to $550 million. That brings the cost of the entire 12-mile line — should it be built in its entirety — to about $1.5 billion.
Meanwhile, work has continued on the first 9 miles of the project to Pomona. Last month, design work from Glendora to Pomona in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, reached “substantial completion,” according to an announcement from the authority. Construction reached 36% completion in early August.
“Completing the design on time for such a large and complex project takes intense pressure off the entire team,” the Kiewit-Parsons Joint Venture said in a statement.
The main segment to Pomona is now set for completion in early 2025, one year ahead of initial plans.
Should the funding for the extension become available next year, construction could be completed just in time for the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
