The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority provided a brief glimpse at the Azusa to Claremont segment of the Gold Line Foothill Extension recently.
Phase 2 of the Foothill Extension would see 12 miles of light rail built with stations in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona and terminating in Claremont. A proposed ballot measure would call for an 18-year extension of the Measure R half-cent sales tax and a half-cent sales tax increase for 40 years; both running through 2057, Metro said.
A draft spending plan projects a groundbreaking for Phase 2 by 2019 with a completion date of 2025 or 2027, Metro said.
Metro eyes constructing new bridges for the project–one over Route 66 and the other over Lone Hill Avenue. Two more bridges would be built in Pomona–one at Towne Avenue and one at Garey Avenue, Metro said.
Near the Glendora Station a 400-space parking lot would be built to accommodate riders. The San Dimas structure would serve 450 drivers, La Verne Station would serve 600, Pomona Station would serve 750 and Claremont Station would serve 1,260.
The Gold Line Foothill Construction Authority, the state-created agency in charge of the Azusa to Claremont segment, would need to acquire land to build the parking structures, Metro said.
The Azusa to Claremont segment would be one of the handful of projects built in the first 15 years under the proposed $120 billion-plus spending plan.
Just some of the projects listed under the proposed 50-year spending plan also include a Purple Line subway extension to Westwood, a new ExpressLane and bus service along the 405 spanning the Sepulveda Pass, a new freeway, energy and high speed rail corridor between the 14 freeway and State Route 18 in the High Desert, new lanes for the 71 freeway in Pomona and improvements for the 57 and 60 freeway interchange.
While Phase 2 was previously discussed by Metro as extending from Azusa to Montclair and Metro’s environmental studies also include the latter, the city is part of San Bernardino County.
Metro tax initiatives only fund Los Angeles County projects and would require funding from San Bernardino County to complete the segment to Montclair, Metro said.
A draft environmental impact report/environmental impact statement for the segment to Claremont was certified in March of 2013. Preliminary engineering began in the summer of 2014.
Metro has been organizing a series of public meetings regarding the spending plan, with more scheduled.
