The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority on January 24 announced that they have received Statements of Qualifications from seven design-build teams interested in building the 12.3-mile Glendora to Montclair Alignment Design-Build Project. This roughly $1.5 billion-project is an extension of the Metro Gold Line light rail system that currently runs between East Los Angeles and Azusa.

The seven interested design-build teams are: AECOM Stacy and Witbeck Team; Balfour Beatty-Skanska Joint Venture; Herzog Rados Lane, a Joint Venture; Kiewit-Parsons, a Joint Venture; Metro Builder & Engineers Group Ltd.; San Gabriel Valley Transit Partners, a Joint-Venture of Flour and Ames; and The Flatiron Dragados Joint Venture.

Gold Line officials say proposing teams will be evaluated on their project experience, staffing and organizational structure, legal qualifications, and financial qualifications. Construction Authority evaluation committees, comprised of "experts in their respective fields and key corridor stakeholders," will now spend the next few weeks evaluating the submissions and providing a rating in their specific categories.

From this process, the Construction Authority plans to identify the most qualified teams to be shortlisted and invite them to bid the approximately $750 million design-build project. The shortlist of the most qualified teams is planned to be released in mid-February.

Gold Line CEO Habib F. Balian said in a statement that the Construction Authority is currently finalizing the Request for Proposals (RFP) document. He says this draft document will be made available for Industry Review next month to the shortlisted teams, corridor cities and certain third-party agencies for review and feedback. Industry Review allows the Construction Authority to hear first-hand from the potential bidders their reactions to the draft proposal solicitation prior to issuance of the final document, said Balian.

The official RFP will be issued in May and proposals will be due in September. "As we did in our previous design-build procurements, the proposals will result in an award to the team providing the 'best value' to the agency," said Balian. "This methodology assures the Construction Authority will hire the team that not only provides an efficiently priced bid, but also proposes the best personnel and processes for delivering a high-quality project on time and on budget."

The Foothill Gold Line from Glendora to Montclair will extend the Metro Gold Line 12.3 miles and add stations in the cities of Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona, Claremont, and Montclair. As with Pasadena to Azusa, the extension from Glendora to Montclair is planned to be built along the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) right-of-way, which was purchased by Metro in the early 1990s for the project.

Once complete, a trip from Montclair to downtown Pasadena will take just over 40 minutes and further to Los Angeles will take approximately 75 minutes.

Completion of the Glendora to Montclair segment is estimated to cost $1.5 billion and take approximately nine years to construct. The project broke ground in December 2017, and substantial completion is anticipated in early-2026.

The Gold Line's previous rail project was the 11.5-mile, six-station Pasadena to Azusa segment, which broke ground in 2010 and began passenger service in March, 2016.