This week, the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority (Construction Authority) announced that the 9.1-mile, four-station Foothill Gold Line light rail project segment from Glendora to Pomona reached a major milestone. As of August, the design for the $1.5 billion light rail project reached substantial completion. The design-build project was awarded to Kiewit-Parsons, a Joint Venture (KPJV) in October 2019, and the first year of the contract was spent focused on completing enough design to start major construction. Major construction began in July 2020; and as of this month, the project is now 36 percent complete overall.

“In addition to reaching substantial completion on the design for this important project this month, the project is now more than one-third complete overall – an extraordinary achievement accomplished during extraordinary times,” stated Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority board chair, Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval. “More than 300 people have been working full time on the project, including dozens of engineers that have focused on completing the design for nearly two years. Altogether, their efforts have allowed the project to move forward at an impressive pace – even as Covid-19 presented unique and unprecedented challenges.”

The project design is a significant element of this complicated design-build project. It is completed in packages, totaling tens of thousands of pages of engineering drawings that go through multiple reviews. Disciplines – like track, stations and systems – are completed in packages covering the entire 9.1-mile alignment; while civil design elements – like roadways, lighting, drainage and walls – are completed in segments, often relating to the corridor city in which those elements will be built. The 19 bridge structures being built on the project are each designed individually. And all design elements go through multiple levels of approval – 30%, 60%, 85%, 100% and then “Approved for Construction” or AFC – and are often reviewed by multiple agencies at each stage. Today’s announcement means that all elements of the project have reached the final level of approval – Approved for Construction.

“It has taken an incredible effort by the Construction Authority team, the design-builder KPJV and our project partners at the corridor cities, Metro and others to reach this month’s historic milestone,” added Sandoval. “We thank them all for their hard work and dedication to completing this project that is creating jobs, economic development opportunities, and ultimately mobility options for our region and its residents.”

Work on the Foothill Gold Line from Glendora to Pomona has been able to continue on schedule through 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The base project from Glendora to Pomona is currently six months ahead of the contractual substantial completion deadline of January 2025. The design-build contract does include an option to have the KPJV team complete the entire project from Glendora to Montclair if additional funding is secured by early October 2021. If that is achieved, the entire 12.3-mile, six-station project will be completed altogether in early 2026.