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The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) recently approved the final design for the I-210 Gold Line Bridge — the first component of the 11.5-mile Gold Line Foothill light-rail extension to advance from the design to construction phase. The authority is governing the construction of a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) line extension between Pasadena and Azusa, Calif.

The $18.6 million bridge, which has been undergoing design and pre-construction phases since August 2010, will be built by Skanska USA, the design-build contractor. Since last year, the authority and primary design subcontractor AECOM have been working with Caltrans and LACMTA to integrate different design standards into the bridge’s structural and aesthetics design. The design features a basket motif created by an artist chosen in an international competition.

As part of the project, AECOM plans to integrate Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) technology, which has never been used before in bridge foundations, construction authority officials said in a prepared statement. TDR is designed to help assess any bridge damage following an earthquake, enabling engineers to make an initial column structure assessment electronically rather than relying on the traditional method of digging trenches adjacent to areas where they suspect damage, they said.