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The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) and BNSF Railway Co. have amended a shared-use agreement through which BNSF will abandon its rights to the corridor along the Metro Gold Line Foothill extension between Pasadena and Azusa, Calif.

The agreement is critical for the Foothill extension light-rail project to move forward, project officials said in a prepared statement.

“This agreement, which has been in the works for many years, will allow a significant portion of the Foothill extension from Pasadena to Azusa to be built as a stand-alone corridor, reducing cost for the project’s construction and future impacts to the community,” said Doug Tessitor, chairman of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority.

The agreement was one of a number of conditions required in the pact with LACMTA before project funding would be released.

The agreement’s timing will enable the construction authority to award a design-build contract this summer for the $450 million Pasadena-to-Azusa alignment work, said Habib Balian, the construction authority’s chief executive officer.

The original shared-used agreement was signed in the early 1990s, when the then-Los Angeles County Transportation Commission [now LACMTA] purchased the right of way between Pasadena and Claremont from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). The initial agreement provided ATSF the right to continue using the right of way with the understanding that at some point it would be needed for a planned rail line. BNSF inherited the agreement after ATSF merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad.

The California Legislature created the authority in 1999 as an independent transportation planning and construction agency to oversee extension of the Metro Gold Line light-rail line from Union Station to Montclair. The first phase of construction was completed in 2003, connecting downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena. L.A. County’s Measure R half-cent sales tax increase will fully fund the new segment; additional funding will be needed to complete the line farther east to Montclair.

A proposed final extension to the L.A./Ontario International Airport is under study.