Underpass Projects at Fairway Drive, Puente Avenue Get Funding Boost

Local railroad grade separation projects recently got a boost when the California Transportation Commission voted to set aside $104 million in state bond funds for two crossings.

The State Proposition 1B Trade Corridor Improvement funds will be used to pay for the construction phase of two rail-highway grade separation projects on Puente Avenue and Fairway Drive in the City of Industry and unincorporated Los Angeles County, according to a news release.

“We appreciate the support of the California Transportation Commission for these significant projects that will eliminate traffic congestion, collision hazards, vehicle emissions and train horns at two crossing choke points,” said El Monte Mayor Pro Tem Norma Macias, chairwoman of the Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority Board of Directors. 

On a daily basis, 24,820 vehicles and 24 trains cross Fairway Drive, according Alameda Corridor-East's statistics. That number is project to increase to 53 trains by 2035, officials said. 

The estimated $119.4 million Fairway Drive project calls for the roadway to be lowered in an underpass just north of the 60 Freeway with a railroad bridge spanning the underpass. 

Design of both projects is nearing completion with the agency set to award construction contracts in fall or winter of 2014, officials said. 

The Puente Avenue crossing gets used by 31,110 vehicles and 22 trains a day, with the number of trains expected to increase to 49 in 2035.  Construction plans call for Puente Avenue to be lowered in an underpass with bridges to be built for the railroad and Valley Boulevard. 

Plans for the $96 million project call for Puente Avenue to be lowered in an underpass with bridges to be built for the railroad and Valley Boulevard.  A new look road that connects Puente Avenue/Workman Mill Road to Valley Boulevard also is in the plan. 

These two projects are part of push to construct 22 rail-highway grade separations in the San Gabriel Valley along the Alameda Corridor-East Trade area, through which goods are carried to and from the San Pedro Bay ports.

"The ports are the nation’s busiest, handling 44 percent of the country’s containerized imports, 90 percent of California’s imports and 75 percent of its exports," officials said in the news release. "Nearly 60% of the containers travel inland along the Alameda Corridor-East Trade Corridor to destinations across the country."