Moving Right Along

Alameda Street, which passes through the grit and grime of Los Angeles County’s aging industrial base, is an eyesore: Rail cars line sidings, sometimes for blocks. Trash and weeds clutter the tracks that run down the middle of the street. Dilapidated buildings and vacant lots dot the roadside.

Rush hour along Alameda is a lesson in gridlock, as slow-moving freight trains pulling scores of cars cause traffic to back up into surrounding residential neighborhoods and commercial districts. The idling trucks and automobiles fill the air with choking exhaust.

Next week, all this will start to change as major construction begins on the $2.4-billion Alameda Corridor project--a sort of diamond lane for railroads that haul goods to and from the county’s fast-growing ports.

It has been called the most important transportation project in the region.

“This culminates 14 years of planning, design work and funding,” said Gill V. Hicks, general manager of the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, which is responsible for building the route. “We are grateful that we’re finally underway on the most critical and most expensive part of the project.”

The corridor, which is one of the largest undertakings of its kind in the country, will extend 20 miles along Alameda Street from the harbor to transcontinental rail hubs near downtown Los Angeles.

The route passes through the cities of Carson, Compton, Huntington Park, Lynwood, South Gate, Vernon and parts of Los Angeles--some of Los Angeles County’s most economically depressed areas.

Alameda Street and the railroad right of way down its spine will get a complete overhaul, including new pavement, track, overpasses, bridges and grade crossings. To accommodate more trucks, Alameda will be widened from four to six lanes south of the Artesia Freeway under related projects funded by the city and county of Los Angeles.

The heart of the project, however, is a $712-million concrete-lined trench that will contain two tracks and an access road that can be converted to track if future cargo volumes demand it.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the trench is scheduled for Dec. 10. Among those expected to attend are Gov. Pete Wilson, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill.

Nuts and Bolts of the Project

Three stories deep and almost 50 feet wide, the trench will run 10 miles from the Artesia Freeway on the south, curving slightly to the east at its northern end to meet Santa Fe Avenue. Some sections of the submerged route will be partially covered by cantilevered road, as well as by overpasses at intersections with cross streets.

Planners say the revamped corridor will dramatically improve the movement of cargo from the ports by consolidating about 90 miles of railroad tracks that now sprawl like tendrils across the southern half of the county.

Overall, about 200 grade crossings will be eliminated, including 34 on Alameda Street alone.

When finished, average rail speeds in the corridor will increase from 10 mph to 40 mph, planners say. Transportation authority officials also predict that severe traffic congestion now caused by slow-moving freight trains will be eliminated in the trench section and greatly reduced elsewhere along the route.

Proponents of the project say the new transportation link is vital to the region’s economic growth and its continued participation in Pacific Rim trade.

Since the 1980s, the volume of cargo arriving in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles has more than doubled, while little has been done to improve the rail lines and roads that move goods into and out of the harbor.

If improvements are not made, proponents say, shipping companies might start using other harbors, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. The Port of Seattle, for example, already is interested in a similar rail project.

Employment Boost

Work on the corridor is expected to create about 8,700 to 9,250 jobs locally over the life of the project, or roughly 1,300 jobs a year. The estimate is lower than earlier projections of 10,500 positions.

About 30% of those jobs are supposed to go to people living within the cities the project passes through. Of that total, 30% will be graduates of the corridor transportation authority’s program to train 1,000 underprivileged people, corridor officials say.

“This is arguably one of the most important economic engines for the 21st century,” Mayor Riordan said. “This will make our ports competitive. Imagine, it will be cheaper to send goods to New York through our ports than sending them through the Panama Canal.”

The corridor will be funded by the sale of revenue bonds to the public, a $400-million federal loan, a $400-million grant from the county’s two ports, and $347 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The corridor authority has authorization to issue $1.3 billion in bonds, roughly half of which will be tax-free for investors. It is planning to sell about $1 billion in bonds in January.

The remainder of the authorization will be sold if more money is needed to complete the project or pay for unexpected construction problems.

Revenue to retire the debt will come from the railroads, which will be charged $30 per 40-foot shipping container and $8 for other types of rolling stock, such as tank cars and coal carriers.

“This is a nice little revenue stream,” said Jeffrey D. Holt, vice president of municipal finance for Goldman, Sachs & Co., which is underwriting the corridor’s bonds.

After start-up, however, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach probably will have to loan the corridor millions of dollars to help cover costs for several years until cargo volumes reach the break-even point. Once the project is in the black, Holt said, the loans from the ports will be repaid with 5% interest.

To date, the Alameda Corridor project has not been dogged by the type of paralyzing scandal that surrounds the Los Angeles subway system. For years, Metro Rail has been marred by crushing cost overruns, fatal accidents, construction mishaps and political turmoil.

Though construction of the most difficult phase of the corridor has yet to begin, the undertaking and the government agency overseeing it look good compared to the MTA.

The corridor authority’s board is well aware of the MTA’s problems--a painful experience, members say, they don’t want to duplicate.

Yet the corridor authority has hired a consortium of construction companies headed by Tutor-Saliba Corp. of Sylmar, as well as other contractors employed on Metro Rail. The Tutor venture is responsible for building the trench section, the most critical phase of the corridor.

Tutor-Saliba has been associated with some of the worst mishaps encountered during construction of the Los Angeles subway. Among other things, the company has been cited repeatedly for inflated expenses, worker safety problems and building tunnel walls out of alignment or thinner than specified.

Over the last few months, however, the corridor authority has taken several steps designed to prevent the project from becoming Metro Rail’s sequel.

An Eye on the Bottom Line

Contractually, there is an array of incentives in place to help keep the trench on schedule and within budget. To assure timely completion, the authority will assess the Tutor venture $125,000 to $200,000 for each day of delay. The corridor considers the project complete when trains can operate on the route. The deadline is February 2002.

The Tutor consortium is responsible for the trench design and must bear the risk of any problems. Unless there is a change in corridor policy, this should allow minimal opportunity for changes that can drive up costs. Also, the corridor agency and the Tutor venture will share some of the expense of unexpected construction problems, such as unforeseen pockets of toxic waste or ground water that have to be removed from the route.

Just as significant, the authority’s management has been strengthened with the hiring of James C. Hankla as the corridor’s chief executive officer. Hankla, who is retiring as Long Beach city manager and is a former chief administrative officer for Los Angeles County, is reputed to be one of the most effective municipal officials in California.

Answering directly to Hankla will be Timothy B. Buresh, a veteran civil engineer, who will be responsible for overseeing the contractors and monitoring their work.

Corridor officials also say the nature of the project is much different than Metro Rail. Tunneling under urban areas, with all its inherent risks, will not be necessary.

Virtually all the Alameda Corridor project involves building bridges, paving roads, laying track and constructing large concrete retaining walls. Except for some innovative design work for the trench section, corridor officials say, there is nothing exotic about the project.

Questions about the corridor’s prospects, however, have been raised by the federal General Accounting Office, which issued a report on the Alameda Corridor earlier this year.

The study cautioned that the enormous project faces a variety of potential pitfalls that congressional analysts suggest could increase costs and frustrate an ambitious plan to finish the project by 2002.

GAO officials specifically warned that the corridor agency might have made overly optimistic financial projections and set unrealistic construction deadlines.

Corridor authority board member Jonathan Y. Thomas, an investment banker and Los Angeles harbor commissioner, says the corridor authority will have little problem obtaining a top rating for its revenue bonds.

The agency’s financial analysts, he said, have made more than 400 computer runs simulating various economic climates and growth projections. According to Thomas, they indicate the project will succeed financially.

Corridor officials say the ability to pay off the enormous debt of at least $1.4 billion depends on the continued growth of the ports at 3% to 5% per year--a rate they described as conservative given Asia’s trade potential.

“We feel very comfortable that the volume of cargo going through the corridor will be more than sufficient to cover the debt service obligations,” Thomas said. “Eventually, the project will pay for itself.”

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A Speedier Corridor for Cargo

The $2.4-billion Alameda Corridor, one of the largest transportation projects in the nation, will stretch 20 miles along Alameda Street from the county’s harbors to transcontinental rail hubs near downtown Los Angeles. A concrete-lined trench for freight trains will extend for half the route, from the Artesia Freeway to just south of the Santa Monica Freeway. On the surface, Alameda Street will be rebuilt. The project is expected to improve the movement of cargo to and from the ports.

A Cutaway View of Tracks and Street

The trench will contain two railroad tracks and an access road. Cantilevered track and roadway will cover only some sections of trench.

1. Spur tracks on the surface for commercial areas along Alameda Street. The sidings will allow railroads to make deliveries and pick up good from businesses and factories.

2. Concrete barriers and fences for safety.

3. Reinforced concrete walls will be three stories high.

4. Two railroad tracks from downtown to ports.

5. Track beds.

6. The floor of the trench will be made of reinforced concrete.

7. Both sides have channels for drainage.

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Source: Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority