The following interview excerpts appeared in Streetsblog Los Angeles on April 2, 2025. To listen to the interview or read the full transcript, click here.

SGV Connect 135.1 – An Update on the Foothill Gold Line Construction Timelines

By Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon

April 2, 2025

[excerpts]:

Damien Newton
Last week, we heard that the next phase of the extension -not the one where the construction is completed, but the next phase – is going to be delayed at least a little bit because bids did not come in as low as hoped. Can you explain what happened there and what the next steps are for the Construction Authority?

Habib Balian
Over the last three years, in preparation to go out to bid for the next phase of the project from Pomona to Montclair, we did our own independent cost estimate. We brought in outside estimators – people that are very well known in the industry – to look at the project, look at our design, look at the specifications, and help us foresee what a potential bidder might bid on the job.

…

The bid came in, it was substantially higher than we expected, I believe, 54% higher than what our estimators and Metro thought the project would cost. We talked to them, went through a best and final offer and were not able to reach… achieve any substantial reduction in it.

Then I took it to the board with the recommendation that we cancel that procurement and instead go out and re-procure through a different contracting method – CMAR (construction manager at risk, as it’s known in the industry) – and proceed ahead with the project. It will be a bit of a delay, but it is a plan to get the project built, which is our mandate: to Montclair. We are starting in earnest with that procurement. It’ll likely be on the street in June, and we’ll be able to hire that designer and then bring on a construction management firm as well, and begin that process. And in furtherance of completing the project, with probably about a year delay we’re expecting.

…

Damien
So it sounds like a lot’s going on, but the plan is still to move forward and to keep going.

Habib
Absolutely. The mandate of the legislature…back in 2000 they determined that the project would go from Union Station to Montclair. Just so, you know, originally [it] was supposed to only go to Claremont, and then it was later amended by the legislature to take it from Claremont to Montclair. That is our mandate.

It’s very important for this project to work at its maximum. And that requires it get to these hubs. And the nearest hub for this project is, in fact, getting to Montclair – to the Montclair Transit Center, the bus center. It’s very important for ridership and for moving people from the Inland Empire into LA County along the Gold Line route from Montclair.

To listen to the interview or read the full transcript, click here.