LA construction authority mulls plan to build final Gold Line segment in two phases

The third and final segment of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) Gold Line light-rail extension to Montclair, California, might be completed in two pieces.

On Monday, the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority unveiled a proposal to deliver the final segment in two phases due to escalating construction costs.

The authority's plan calls for building an initial phase from Azusa to La Verne, California, with new stations in Glendora, San Dimas and La Verne. That segment could open in 2024. The original plan was to build the entire extension as one project from Azusa to Montclair, with an opening slated for 2027.

However, the authority has received construction bids that are "substantially more" than the project's cost estimates, wrote Steve Hymon, editor of Metro's blog.

"All four bids reflect a significant unfavorable shift in market conditions since the agency completed the project estimate two years ago," authority officials said in a news release. "When added with current unknowns and risk within the construction industry locally and nationally, these factors resulted in the long-term construction project becoming especially expensive and risky for bidders."

If the proposal is approved, the authority can deliver it within the ongoing design-build procurement by asking bidders to provide revised bids for the first 8 miles of the project. The winning team may be selected to build the full project to Montclair if funding is secured within two years of a notice to proceed, according to authority officials.

The proposal also calls for increasing the budget for the total 12.3-mile extension by $570 million to $2.1 billion.

In March 2016, Metro opened the second phase of the Gold Line extension from Pasadena to Azusa. The first 13.7-mile phase connecting downtown LA to Pasadena was finished in 2003.