Los Angeles City Council Authorizes Design-Build Contracting Method for Alameda Corridor Construction Project

JULY 23, 1997

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles City Council today approved an ordinance introduced by Councilman Rudy Svorinich, Jr., authorizing the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA) to use a Charter-approved negotiation process to combine the design work and the construction into a single contract, a ‘design-build’ contract, for a portion of the Alameda Corridor. ACTA will let contracts pursuant to a competitive sealed proposal method.

The ACTA will utilize the design-build contracting authority for the construction of the mid-corridor segment of the project. The mid-corridor encompasses ten-miles of depressed rail through Alameda Street in the cities of Compton, Lynwood, South Gate, Huntington Park and Vernon. The use of design-build will shorten construction time by more than one year.

“This action by the City Council marks an extremely important event in the development of the Alameda Corridor,” said Councilman Rudy Svorinich, Jr., who also serves as vice chairman of the ACTA Governing Board. “With design-build, ACTA can put a bidding and construction schedule into place that is consistent with the overall goal of completing the project by 2001.”

“The Los Angeles City Council action today will result in significant time savings in terms of construction,” said ACTA Governing Board Chairman Jeff Kellogg. “Ultimately, we anticipate that implementation of design-build will produce millions in cost savings and allow for the generation of user fees much sooner than would otherwise be possible.”

“It is time to get the project built,” said Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, chair of the Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee which initially approved the ordinance. “The sooner it starts, the sooner people will reap the environmental and job training benefits it will bring to the area.”

Today’s City Council action comes on the heels of ACTA’s decision last week to make the first major draw-down on the federal loan secured for the Alameda Corridor project last fall. Members of the ACTA Governing Board authorized General Manager Gill Hicks to notify the U.S. Department of Transportation that ACTA intends to draw the first $140 million of the $400 million loan on or before September 30, 1997.

The Alameda Corridor will consolidate the operations of two freight rail carriers and eliminate more than 200 grade crossings, creating a 20-mile high-speed, high-volume corridor connecting the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to the transcontinental rail center in downtown Los Angeles. It is estimated that the Alameda Corridor will create up to 10,000 construction-related jobs. Additional trade activity resulting from port growth could generate as many as 700,000 jobs in Southern California by the year 2020.