The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority’s Gold Line Light Rail Program Phase 2B1 extended the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s A Line (formerly Gold Line) 9.1 miles from Azusa to Pomona and added four stations featuring public art to the line in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, and Pomona. In addition to the double-track light rail transit railway and four stations, the project included the delivery of parking facilities at each of the stations, the reconstruction of 21 at-grade crossings, the relocation of 9.1 miles of freight track, the construction or renovation of 19 railway bridges, the installation of sound walls and fencing, and the delivery of an overhead power system and other system infrastructure.

Despite the project’s size and complexity, the Construction Authority’s Phase 2B1 project team, including GISI Consulting Group company Hill International, collaborated to deliver the extension on time, within budget, and with zero claims. In recognition of the team’s construction management excellence, the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) Southern California Chapter honored the project with a Project Achievement Award in the Transportation: Over $50 Million category.

Driving Progress Through the Pandemic

Phase 2B1 required the management of a large workforce spanning diverse trades and engineering disciplines, coordination with numerous municipalities and stakeholders, and safety and traffic control planning along a busy multimodal corridor. In addition to these challenges, the project’s major construction activities began in July 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold. As an extension of the Construction Authority’s staff, Hill provided program and construction management services to help the Authority and the rest of the project team overcome the unprecedented complexity of planning, designing, and building transit infrastructure in a dense urban environment during a global pandemic.

For example, COVID-19 created logistical and supply chain challenges that threatened the project schedule. At the start of the pandemic, Hill worked with the Authority and the design-builder to identify potential supply chain issues and proactively address them by accelerating design approvals and developing risk-sharing agreements for the procurement of certain items prior to finalizing design. To minimize budget impacts, the project team also developed a method for documenting any additional costs during COVID-19. These efforts helped reduce risk and kept the project moving forward.

Overcoming Complexity With Effective Coordination

Effective stakeholder coordination was perhaps the most important factor in managing the project’s complexity. Hill assisted the Construction Authority in coordinating with more than 20 stakeholders involved in the project, including each corridor city along the alignment, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, BNSF, the Federal Transit Administration, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), Caltrans, utility owners, and many more.

Hill’s coordination efforts helped keep stakeholders accountable to the overall program and were crucial for managing interfaces between stakeholders during a variety of project activities. For example, reconstructing 21 at-grade crossings required full street closures, relocation of underground utilities, installation of new light rail tracks and safety equipment, and construction of new medians, sidewalks, curbs/gutters, and roadways. With Hill’s support, the Construction Authority created an integrated set of grade crossing requirements to include in the design-build contract. This minimized impacts to local residents and businesses, while still allowing the design-build contractor to stage and phase construction activities to meet schedule requirements. Hill also coordinated to keep stakeholders informed and aligned throughout grade crossing activities, helping prevent delays.

The relocation of 9.1 miles of active freight tracks along the entire project corridor while maintaining freight operations also posed a major schedule risk, requiring careful planning and coordination with SCRRA and the operators who use the freight line. To shift the tracks on time and safely with minimal disruption to freight operations, the team planned the work over four separate phases. The Construction Authority also assumed “railroad of record” responsibilities for inspection and maintenance of the entire freight railroad subdivision, which allowed the project team to coordinate construction activities with freight dispatch while maintaining required employee in charge/watchman oversight. Additionally, the team negotiated agreements to provide materials to freight clients via transloading, facilitating extended shutdown periods for portions of the freight alignment. With Hill’s coordination support, the design-builder completed the track shifts as planned, allowing light rail track installation to move forward on time.

Exceeding Expectations

The longest light rail line in the world, the A Line now runs for nearly 58 miles. The Construction Authority’s extension increases mobility throughout the Los Angeles area, improves connectivity to job centers, and promotes sustainability by reducing reliance on automobiles. Hill’s support helped keep the transformative project on track through challenging periods such as the COVID-19 pandemic to conclude on time, within budget, and with zero claims.

“Transit projects are among the most challenging and the most critical projects in the world today, and they are only becoming more complex,” says Derek Amidon, Chief Executive Officer of GISI Consulting Group. “The infrastructure expertise of Consulting Group companies such as Hill makes it possible to not only deliver crucial transit system expansions and enhancements, but to do so in an award-winning fashion.”

Hill International provides program, project, and construction management and advisory services for clients in a range of sectors undertaking major construction projects across the world. Hill is the 3rd largest project and construction management firm in the U.S., as featured in Building Design + Construction magazine. Hill is also ranked as the 8th largest overall U.S. construction management firm by Engineering News-Record. The team has participated in more than 90,000 project assignments with a total construction value of over $1 trillion, and operates in more than 100 offices across 42 countries.

Learn more about Hill’s work on the Gold Line Light Rail Program.