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Yesterday, Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) board voted to reaffirm its decision to authorize contracts with the two firms it selected in December 2009 to design, operate and maintain the Oakland Airport Connector. The vote should be the final action the board will need to take before the agency breaks ground on the project, according to BART.

The agency is still waiting for a decision by the California Transportation Commission (CTC), which is set to vote at a Sept. 22 meeting as to whether it should allocate $20 million to help fund the project. If the CTC approves the funding, BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger will sign the contracts, launching the three-and-a-half-year construction phase.

The Oakland Airport Connector will replace AirBART buses. Connector vehicles will arrive at the Coliseum every four-and-a-half minutes and transport travelers to the airport in eight minutes, with an anticipated on-time performance of more than 99 percent.

Construction on the $484 million project could begin as early as late 2010.