The monthly Metro Board meeting will take place tomorrow at 9:30 AM at the Board Room of the Metro building, and up for votes will be the funding agreement and master cooperative agreement between the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority and Metro. Approval of these agreements will allow the Authority to move forward with selecting a contractor to break ground and begin construction this summer on the Extension. Excited?
We’ll be covering the meeting on Twitter @iwillride tomorrow, so be sure to follow.
More details below from Foothill Extension CEO Habib Balian’s most recent email:
Negotiations between the Construction Authority and Metro have successfully completed and produced recommended Funding and Master Cooperative Agreement term sheets for consideration by the Metro board tomorrow. The final draft eliminates redundancies and inefficiencies proposed in previous versions; while at the same time providing Metro with assurances that the design and quality of construction meets their design criteria. The final draft also provides significant coordination and information sharing between agencies. I have attached a one-page summary for your review.
These negotiations concluded amicably due to the hard work of many, including Metro Board members from throughout the region and their staff, Metro staff and counsel, and Ara Najarian, whose leadership and involvement was integral to this success.
I am optimistic that the term sheets will be approved in this final form at tomorrow’s Metro Board meeting. If you are available to attend, the meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. at Metro Headquarters (One Gateway Plaza, 3rd Floor Board Room).
The timing of this approval is critical. Just yesterday, the Authority received Statements of Qualifications from four highly qualified design-build teams interested in participating in a public-private partnership with the Authority to finance and build the Phase 2A Alignment. The teams include (in alpha order): Atkinson Contractors/Granite Construction Co./Clark Construction Group; Kiewit Pacific Co./Parsons Transportation Group; Shimmick Construction Co./URS Corp.; and Skanska USA/Balfour Beatty USA. And early next month, the Authority will be receiving proposals for design and construction of the Iconic Freeway Structure from the previously-qualified teams.
When approved tomorrow, the Authority will be on schedule for a June 19 ground breaking.
The Journey Continues,
Habib F. Balian