Contract Awarded to Construct First Leg of L.A.-Pasadena Line

Plans for a long-delayed light rail line between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena gained new momentum Wednesday night as the first construction contract was awarded.

The $21-million contract calls for an elevated structure connecting the eastern edge of Union Station with an above-ground station in Chinatown. The 2,800-foot-long elevated section is to be the first leg of a 13.7-mile line that will run through Chinatown to Lincoln Heights, Highland Park, South Pasadena and Pasadena.

The contract was unanimously approved by directors of the Pasadena Metro Blue Line Construction Authority, the agency that took over the job from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority after the MTA spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on design and initial construction for the project.

State lawmakers, upset with the MTA’s track record on Los Angeles rail projects, created the construction authority last year with the sole mission of finishing the Pasadena line.

Rick Thorpe, chief executive officer of the authority, said the first construction contract is a significant milestone.

“We are proceeding with the L.A.-to-Pasadena Metro Blue Line!” he said.

The contract, awarded after an extensive qualification and competitive bidding process, went to a joint venture--Modern Continental/HNTB--composed of two major construction companies.

Before the authority voted on the contract, Thorpe urged directors to proceed with construction of the aerial structure, even though the authority does not have enough money to complete the entire line.

“We haven’t solidified the resources yet,” he said.

The line’s $683.7-million budget counts on $42.7 million in revenue from parking lots, real estate development at certain stations along the route and installation of fiber optic lines along the old railroad right of way that extends from Union Station through Pasadena to Claremont. Fiber optic companies would pay to use the right of way. Without that money, the project faces a potential budget deficit, even before construction proceeds.

When the expenses already incurred by the MTA are deducted, the project budget shrinks to what Thorpe called “a pretty bare-bones $411.7 million.”

Project supporters in Pasadena were thrilled last week when Gov. Gray Davis included an additional $40 million for the rail line in his proposed $5.2-billion state transportation plan. But that plan requires approval of state lawmakers and passage of a bond issue by the voters.

“We hope it’s in the bank, but we will not know for some time,” Thorpe said. “We just aren’t there yet.”

The authority’s chairman, Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez, warned that commitments made to communities along the route must be met if the city is to participate in construction of the line.

Residents of those communities are demanding that the authority abide by commitments to include design and safety features to protect and enhance their neighborhoods. The agreements were made when the MTA controlled the project.

Hernandez, who lives a block from the rail route, said the stations on the line have the potential to bring a major economic turnaround in Chinatown, Lincoln Heights and Highland Park.

Board member Vivien Bonzo echoed concerns about community commitments and the project budget. “We need to tighten these numbers up,” she said.

Authority board member Paul Little said the agency should move ahead with the Union Station-Chinatown construction contract.

“We need to show progress,” he said. “The best way to show concrete progress is to start building something.”

Little, a Pasadena councilman, said the two-track, elevated structure is one of the most time-consuming and complicated elements of the entire project. He noted that the winning bid was $1.1 million below the authority’s estimates. The work is supposed to be substantially completed by January 2002. The projected opening date for the line is July 2003.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Moving Ahead

The agency created to finish a long-delayed light rail project between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena awarded its first construction contract Wednesday night. The $21-million contract calls for building an above-ground structure for about half a mile from Union Station to Chinatown. That section is the first leg of a winding route that ends in east Pasadena.