Diverse Interests on Track in Corridor

As public officials gathered early at a fog-shrouded Southern Pacific switching yard in Carson to celebrate the financial package that may bring $400 million to the Alameda Corridor, Mayor Paul Richards of Lynwood, one of the relatively poor cities along the project’s route, voiced “serious concern” over jobs for his constituents.

In fact, some kind of jobs pledge ultimately will be made to Lynwood and others among the 26 cities along the route of the proposed $1.8-billion project, which will expand rail and truck routes to speed cargo from the ports of Long Beach and San Pedro to rail yards near downtown Los Angeles.

Negotiations in the last six weeks have eased tensions and gone far toward settling a lawsuit that Lynwood, Compton, Huntington Park, South Gate and Vernon brought last year against the ports and the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority.

The cities wanted to make sure there was something in it for them as the Alameda Corridor goes forward. Their concerns were heard and the lawsuit could be settled within a month, say officials close to the talks.

Meanwhile, good feelings engendered by those negotiations--along with ingenious financing ideas developed locally--helped secure a critical $400-million loan from the federal government.

And it may be that other obstacles still in the way of the corridor project will be dispatched with the same mix of diplomacy, ingenuity, street smarts and good sense.

Indeed, the Alameda Corridor, as it is built over the next five years, could prove an important example of how disparate communities can work together to keep Southern California in the forefront of the world economy.

If all goes well, that is. Up till now the corridor could be called “Cliffhanger Gulch” for all the crises it has survived in almost two decades of planning.

This week’s financing is but the latest crisis. The massive public works undertaking, which will dig a 32-foot-trench and construct 32 overpasses on Alameda Street so it can accommodate 100 trains and 50,000 trucks a day without disrupting other traffic, ran into a financial wall late last year.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had put up $400 million to buy railroad rights of way and the state of California had thrown in $80 million in development money. But the corridor needed $700 million from the federal government.

Traditionally, federal grants finance public infrastructure. But money is scarce in budget-conscious Washington. So innovative financing had to be devised.

Jon Thomas, an L.A. Port commissioner and municipal finance expert, proposed the federal loan guarantee to the corridor project to be repaid by user fees that would be generated once added cargoes start moving in 2001 or so. In addition, $350 million would come from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

It’s still a cliffhanger. Congress must approve an appropriation backing the loan guarantee before October, and user fees on container traffic were already counted on as backing for $600 million in bonds the corridor will float in 1997.

But projects of this magnitude don’t get built without acts of faith. Take jobs for the corridor cities. Tens of thousands of jobs will come with the project’s construction. But more lasting jobs will come with economic development once the corridor is completed.

Huntington Park Councilman Raul Perez foresees free trade zones in which manufacturing facilities can prepare U.S. goods for export or finish goods imported from Asia for U.S. markets.

Nothing precise has been planned for such zones or manufacturing jobs. But Perez knows instinctively that building new access roads to move traffic will spark development in the area.

“Five miles either side of Alameda Street used to the industrial heartland of Southern California, with General Motors’ plant in South Gate and Goodyear’s and others,” Perez says. Those plants have been shuttered for years but “the corridor will make that space attractive again,” he adds.

But the corridor first must get built for such dreams to come true. And it’s important that the project be completed on time. The federal government anticipates repayments on its $400-million loan to begin in 2001, setting a very tight schedule for all that must be done to complete the corridor.

Leading contractors--including Ralph M. Parsons, the Pasadena engineering firm; Brown & Root, the Houston-based construction firm, and the Southern Pacific--favor a single contract that would get things done quickly.

But a big project like this attracts a lot of interest. Local firms of every kind and cities along the corridor want a piece of the action. So hard politicking will have to accompany the hard work.

Benefits are not only for Los Angeles County. The Inland Empire with rail yards at San Bernardino and Colton will prosper directly from the corridor. The San Gabriel Valley and north Orange County are contemplating a rail and truck corridor of their own for increased freight.

However, if the corridor lags or isn’t built, the backup of freight will stymie expansion of the ports and cause shippers to look elsewhere. Seattle and Tacoma would eagerly bid to take away the trade with Asia.

But Southern California will probably prevail. The corridor, after all, is typical of the great public works projects that built this region. Yet it is very different as well.

William Mulholland’s water projects answered only to a small group of business leaders, while the freeways were decided by a similar business elite.

Now Southern California has to satisfy multitudes to achieve great ambitions.

But it also has the multitudes to lobby for it in Washington and Sacramento, the diverse communities to give it the ingenuity and energy to hold its place as trade hub for the United States.

* NOT A DONE DEAL

Officials urge pressure on Congress to OK project funds. B10