Alameda Corridor Agency Authorizes Construction On Critical 10-Mile Trench

Alameda Corridor Agency Authorizes Construction on Critical 10-Mile Trench

JANUARY 14, 1999

The public agency building the Alameda Corridor rail cargo expressway authorized Chief Executive Officer Jim Hankla on Thursday to issue the final notice to proceed with the Mid-Corridor Trench, clearing the way for construction on the project’s biggest and most critical element.

Following a unanimous vote by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA) Governing Board, Hankla said he would issue the notice Friday to Tutor-Saliba Corp., the contractor building the 10-mile-long, 33-foot-deep trench.

” This notice to proceed starts the clock running on the contractor’s deadline to deliver a completed project,” Hankla said. “The contract includes a number of provisions to ensure on-time and on-budget work, and we are quite confident that Tutor-Saliba will meet its obligation to finish the job by April 14, 2002.”

ACTA, a joint powers authority between the cities and ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, is building a 20-mile-long railroad freight expressway linking the ports to the transcontinental rail yards just east of downtown Los Angeles. The project will speed the shipment of cargo by consolidating rail lines and improve the flow of rail and vehicle traffic by eliminating more than 200 street-level railroad crossings.

The $712 million Mid-Corridor Design-Build Contract, awarded in October to a team led by Tutor-Saliba, calls for construction of a two-track trench along Alameda Street between State Route 91 in Compton to 25th Street in Los Angeles. Bridges will be constructed to carry street traffic over the trench at 29 crossings. The contractor also must provide job training for at least 1,000 local residents and assign at least 30 percent of all worker hours to local residents.

ACTA issued an initial notice to proceed with limited non-construction work on Oct. 28. Actual construction of the trench is expected to begin in June.

” With the final notice to proceed this week and the sale of bonds next week to complete our funding package, the next step would be to begin full-scale construction work,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich, Jr., Chairman of the ACTA Governing Board. “The Governing Board has worked a number of years to get to this point, and we are proud of this milestone.”

More than 200 people — including then Gov. Pete Wilson, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater and several members of Congress and the Legislature – attended a Dec. 10 event to commemorate the start of work on the Mid-Corridor Trench.

Tutor-Saliba, based in Sylmar, has extensive experience with large public works contracts. The Tutor-Saliba team submitted the proposal with the lowest ultimate cost for the Mid-Corridor contract.

The contract requires Tutor-Saliba to pay the first $10 million in any costs for unforeseen conditions. The contractor also must pay damages of between $125,000 and $200,000 for every day the project is late.