San Gabriel Valley COG to Honor Former ACE CEO Richmond

Former Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority (ACE) CEO Rick Richmond will be formally acknowledged today by the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG) for his leadership and innovation in developing and implementing the ACE program of rail-highway grade separations and crossing safety and mobility improvements in the San Gabriel Valley.

Richmond will be the recipient of the 2013 Jack Phillips Award, to be presented Thursday evening at an annual SGVCOG awards ceremony at the San Gabriel Hilton.  The award is named after a City of Industry Councilman who also served as a founding board member of the ACE Construction Authority.

“Rick’s integrity, forthrightness and good judgment were exemplary and his expert focus on budgets, funding and schedule were essential to the successful implementation of the ACE program,” said El Monte Mayor Pro Tem Norma Macias, Chair of the ACE Board of Directors, who nominated Richmond for the award.  “Though he will be missed, Rick developed a strong team at ACE, which I am confident will continue its successes.”

Macias will accept the award on behalf of Richmond, who retired on May 17 and is traveling on the East Coast.  Under Richmond’s leadership, ACE grew from a small agency mobilized with a skeleton staff and a startup loan from the City of Industry to a successful agency responsible for implementing a $1.7 billion program of 22 highway-rail grade separations and safety and mobility improvements at another 39 at-grade crossings. 

Today, ACE is widely regarded as a model for the successful implementation of freight infrastructure projects and has secured nearly $1.5 billion in federal, state, local and railroad funding commitments for its program.

Richmond’s career in transportation spanned 41 years at four transportation agencies, starting at the Federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration, then as Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, and later at New Jersey Transit.  He was hired as CEO at ACE shortly after the agency was established in 1998 by the SGVCOG. 

 --Courtesy of the Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority