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LOS ANGELES COUNTY –
Keeping the Alameda Corridor on schedule and on budget, the public agency
building the rail cargo expressway on Thursday approved one of its few remaining
construction contracts.
The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA)
Governing Board awarded a $6.5 million contract for construction of a rail
bridge over Soto Street in Los Angeles. The two-track bridge will replace a
single-track structure east of the Los Angeles River, where cargo trains will
leave the Alameda Corridor mainline and diverge to massive railroad switching
yards.
The contract, which also includes improvements to Perrino
Place, went to a joint venture led by Shimmick Construction Company and Obayashi
Corporation. The team, based in Hayward, Ca., submitted the lowest bid.
Construction is scheduled to begin this month and be completed in September
2001.
The Shimmick-Obayashi team also has a contract for the
nearby Redondo Junction project and the Henry Ford Grade Separation on the
Alameda Corridor's south end.
ACTA has now awarded 16 of 20 construction contracts
representing approximately 98 percent of construction contract values.
"We're at peak construction right now, with activity
visible up and down the route," said Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy
Svorinich, Jr., ACTA Governing Board chairman. "This intense level of
activity will continue until the project opens in April 2002."
ACTA,
a joint powers agency that includes the cities and ports of Long Beach and Los
Angeles, is building a 20-mile railroad freight expressline linking the ports to
the transcontinental rail yards just east of downtown Los Angeles. The $2.4
billion project will speed the flow of cargo and ease traffic congestion by
eliminating conflicts at more than 200 at-grade railroad crossings. Construction
began in May 1997, and the Alameda Corridor remains on schedule to open in April
2002.
CONTACTS:
MARIA MORENO (310) 233-7480
PHIL HAMPTON (562) 435-5551
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