Gold Line Works Around State Supreme Court Roadblock

Working on the Gold Line bridge at Santa Anita Avenue.

The Metro board has freed money for continued Gold Line rail line work, kind of outflanking a State Supreme Court decision.

As you may recall, the court froze redevelopment agencies until a lawsuit is settled, but since the Gold line needed to lock up property from the Monrovia Redevelopment Agency for a maintenance yard before it would qualify for more money, the court order meant it was stuck. But now the Metro board has taken that into consideration and decided to free up some of the cash. Gold Line spokesman Habib Balian writes:

"Earlier today, the Metro board approved an important amendment to our funding agreement, affording the Construction Authority access to $208 million of the approved $735 million total project budget, an increase of $103.6 million from the original terms.

"Having access to the funds allows the Authority to provide Kiewit Parsons Joint Venture an Interim Notice to Proceed for the Pasadena to Azusa design and preconstruction work, maintaining our current schedule of construction completion in 2015."

- Brad Haugaard