Four design-build teams have been short-listed to build the new Glendora to Montclair extension of the Gold Line light rail project in Southern California. The Construction Authority, the organization in charge of building the Gold Line, announced February 14 that these four teams made the cut:

  • AECOM | Stacy and Witbeck JV
  • Herzog Rados Lane, a Joint Venture
  • Kiewit-Parsons, a Joint Venture
  • San Gabriel Valley Transit Partners (STP), a Joint Venture of Fluor 

Last month the Construction Authority received seven separate Statements of Qualifications (SOQ) from design-build teams vying for the work. The SOQs were reviewed by four evaluation committees and were judged on the basis of the following evaluation criteria: related project experience, staffing and organization, legal qualifications and financial qualifications.

In the end, six of the seven submitting teams were qualified; and the four deemed most qualified were recommended for the shortlist. Gold Line CEO Habib F. Balian said in a statement that each team has "good experience in light rail construction and would be capable of completing the next segment."

The design-build contract to build the roughly $1.5 billion, 12.3-mile Glendora to Montclair Alignment Design-Build Project is worth about $750 million. The Glendora to Montclair section is an extension of the Metro Gold Line light rail system that currently runs between East Los Angeles and Azusa.

Now that they made the shortlist, the four design-build teams, along with various project stakeholders, will be receiving the Industry Review Draft of the Request for Proposals (RFP). The Industry Review RFP is a complete draft of the official RFP that is scheduled to be issued to the shortlisted proposers at the end of May. The Industry Review RFP provides key project stakeholders and the proposing teams an opportunity to review the latest version of the engineering and procurement documents and gives them an opportunity to provide feedback that the agency may use to finalize the documents before they are officially released in May.

Balian said 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.