Gold Line Bridge project honored for engineering, construction

The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority received five awards from the construction and engineering industry for its Gold Line Bridge project completed last year in Southern California.

The bridge was the first element to be completed of the 11.5-mile Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension light-rail project from Pasadena to Azusa, Calif.

The bridge project recently was honored as Best Project in Southern California, Highways and Bridges, by the Engineering News-Record; it received the 2013 Engineering Achievement Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies; the 2013 Project Achievement Award by the Construction Management Association of America; the Distinguished Project Award by the Western Council of Construction Consumers; and the Outstanding Public Civil Engineering Project, Transportation over $10 Million, by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The bridge provides a connection between the existing Gold Line terminus in the median of the Interstate-210 Freeway and the Sierra Madre Villa station in Pasadena, and the future station under construction in downtown Arcadia.

The bridge was the first transit bridge to be designed by an artist and has been recognized as the largest, single public art/transit infrastructure project, construction authority officials said in a press release. The $18.6 million project was designed by artist Andrew Leicester, who worked with design-builder Skanska USA and Los Angeles-based design consultant AECOM to ensure the final design and construction were "true to the overall vision," official said.

"The bridge is being recognized not only for its artistic beauty, but also the challenges that were overcome to design and build the bridge over an active freeway with an earthquake fault," said Habib Balian, the construction authority's chief executive officer.