The following excerpts appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune on March 26, 2025. To read the full article (may require subscription), click here.
Due to cost, bid canceled to extend A (Gold) Line light-rail to Claremont, Montclair – San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Seen here is an artist rendering of the Montclair A Line Station to be built at the Montclair Transit Center. Despite being awarded $798 million from LA Metro on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, and with $80 million for the one-mile line from Claremont to Montclair from San Bernardino County, the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority said the lone bid to build the line’s extension from Pomona to Claremont exceeded its budget by hundreds of millions of dollars. On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, the board canceled the procurement and moved to start over with a new request for a proposal to be advertised in June. (image courtesy of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority).
By Steve Scauzillo
March 26, 2025
[excerpts]:
A potential contract for constructing the long-awaited light-rail extension from Pomona into San Bernardino County was rejected because the bid ran hundreds of millions of dollars over budget due to inflation, rising labor costs, market uncertainty and Trump’s tariffs, officials announced on Wednesday, March 26.
…
“Despite numerous efforts by the Construction Authority to collaborate, including making dozens of contract changes requested by Kiewit to reduce costs, Kiewit’s best and final bid offer was delivered to the Authority last week and remained hundreds of millions of dollars above expert estimates and available funding. As a result, it’s both impossible and inappropriate to move forward with their bid,” said board chair and Claremont City Councilman Ed Reece.
…
Due to the tremendous uncertainty in the construction industry, the Construction Authority will split the bids in the future. In June, it is hoping to issue a request for a full design of the project. Later, a construction bid will be sought based on that design.
[Foothill Gold Line CEO Habib F.] Balian said the two-step process will reduce the cost of future bids by controlling uncertainty costs. “First we get a design. Then we will bring in a builder. We believe this will squeeze as much risk out of the project,” he said.
The new process, if successful, pushed back the completion date of the project to 2031, Balian said.
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