Alameda Corridor Agency Awards One of Few Remaining Construction Contracts

OCTOBER 12, 2000

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.