La Verne Chamber Of Commerce: Foothill Gold Line June 2021 Project Update

Press release from La Verne Chamber of Commerce:

June 25, 2021

Progress continues throughout Glendora-to-Pomona Project segment. Travel anywhere along the Glendora to Pomona Project Segment corridor, and significant progress is being made on this important regional infrastructure project.
 
As of this month, the project design is nearing 100% completion, six more at-grade crossings are undergoing reconstruction (six more have already been substantially completed), work has started on many of the bridges and will be starting soon on the light rail bridges to be built over major city streets, and crews are nearly complete on relocating the longest of three sections of the freight track to be shifted. Additionally, walls are starting to be erected along the corridor, many with the custom design wall panels of citrus peel patterns.
 
Grade Crossing Updates: As of mid-June, crews are actively working at six grade crossings throughout the project corridor: Vermont Ave., Pasadena Ave. and Loraine Ave. in Glendora; Eucla Ave. and Walnut Ave. in San Dimas; and E St. in La Verne. At these crossings, crews are relocating and protecting underground water, sewer, gas, communications and power lines; as well as installing new tracks and safety equipment, and rebuilding the roadway, curbs and gutters.

At the Eucla Ave. crossing in San Dimas, crews have made significant progress and are ahead of schedule. They are nearing completion on the underground utility work and have completed installation of the new light rail tracks and relocated freight track. In July, the D St. crossing in La Verne is scheduled to begin reconstruction. As always, construction alerts are sent out when these activities start and when streets reopen. Click here to sign up to receive construction alerts.
 
Freight Track Relocation: KPJV has completed the majority of work necessary to relocate the freight track through the city of Glendora (the freight track outage was extended through June, giving crews more time to work without interruption for daily freight deliveries).
 
The Glendora relocated segment accounts for the longest of three segments of the project that will undergo freight track relocation and shifting. Once the freight track is relocated, crews begin installation of fencing barriers between the freight track and future light rail tracks.
 
Bridge Construction: Crews have begun building the abutments (the supports for both ends of a bridge) for new bridge structures over Live Oak Wash in La Verne. Two bridge structures will be built over Live Oak Wash - one for the light rail system and one for the relocated freight system.
 
Additionally, crews are about to start work on the abutments for the new light rail bridge over the intersection of Bonita Ave./Cataract Ave. in San Dimas. Because the intersection will be fully realigned as part of the project, the abutment walls will begin construction once crews have completed the first of four phases of reconstruction for the intersection. The first phase is close to completion and will allow traffic to be moved onto new eastbound lanes, constructed over the last many weeks on an empty lot south of Bonita Ave. Phase 2 of the work will involve moving traffic onto that new section of roadway and rearranging the flow of traffic through the intersection. This will allow crews to begin work on the bridge abutments without having to close lanes or streets.
 
May 19 Community Meeting Info: With major construction in full swing on the Foothill Gold Line from Glendora to Pomona, the Construction Authority hosted a Virtual Community Meeting on May 19, 2021, to provide an update on the project and to answer questions. The meeting was well attended and included break-out sessions for people to ask specific questions related to construction in their city. All information shared at the community meeting, including a new video released to explain how the at-grade crossings for the light rail system are designed for safety, is available at the Construction Authority’s website.

This press release was produced by La Verne Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.