May 2019
San Gabriel Trench project wins top California transportation award
IRWINDALE, CA – The California Transportation Foundation (CTF) named the San Gabriel Trench Project as the overall Project of the Year at its 30th Annual Transportation Awards. The award recognizes the premier transportation project in California from all regions of the state. This year’s statewide winner was selected from among more than 60 nominations.
The 2.2-mile project was the largest public works project in the history of the City of San Gabriel and the largest project in the $1.7 billion Alameda Corridor-East (ACE) grade separation program overseen by the Capital Projects and Construction Committee of the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG).
“This is a tremendous honor and a momentous achievement for the San Gabriel Trench Project to be selected as the most outstanding transportation project in the State of California,” said El Monte Councilwoman Victoria Martinez Muela, Chair of SGVCOG Capital Projects and Construction Committee.
The project resulted in the lowering of a 1.4-mile section of railroad track in a 30-foot-deep, 65-foot-wide trench through the City of San Gabriel with roadway bridges constructed at four hazardous at-grade crossings and railroad bridges built over two storm channels. The trench improves safety by eliminating the potential for crossing collisions, delays for nearly 90,000 motorists each day, reduces emissions from idling vehicles and allows emergency responders to respond more quickly on both sides of the tracks. Construction required the excavation of more than 500,000 cubic yards of soil removed via 33,000 dump truck trips and the pouring of 6,500 truckloads of concrete to build the trench walls and floor and roadway bridge structures.
“This recognition can only be made possible by the hard work and dedication of our staff, project partners and the teams who designed, managed and constructed the San Gabriel Trench under Senior Project Manager Phillip Balmeo,” said Mark Christoffels, Chief Engineer of the SGVCOG. “It was a challenging project and we are proud of the efforts made to overcome the hurdles and deliver the project under budget and within four years of construction.”
Walsh Construction was the project's general contractor, and the team also included Jacobs Engineering as construction manager, Moffatt & Nichol as lead designer, SWCA as the archaeological and cultural resources consultant, Paragon Partners, Lee Andrews Group, the City of San Gabriel and Union Pacific Railroad.
"The San Gabriel Trench is a terrific example of what great teams can accomplish when working together," said Jay Titus, program manager for Walsh Construction. "We were a team of teams, attacking challenges from Day One to not only deliver an award-winning project, but to also improve safety, traffic flow and rail reliability."
The San Gabriel Trench is part of a program of 19 grade separations at railroad crossings in eastern Los Angeles County to mitigate the impacts of growth in trade transported by train along the ACE Trade Corridor, which carries 16% of all waterborne containerized trade in the nation.
The $293.7 million project was funded with state transportation bonds, Los Angeles County half-cent transportation sales tax funds, federal transportation funds and contributions from Union Pacific Railroad and the City of San Gabriel.
Established more than thirty years ago, the CTF is the leading charitable transportation organization in the state. The Project of the Year award is the latest in a series of awards honoring the freight railroad trench. Earlier this month, the San Gabriel Trench was one of two ACE projects to receive a Project Achievement Award from the Southern California Chapter of the Construction Management Association of America. In December, the project received the Project of the Year Award from the Southern California Chapter of the American Public Works Association.
Source: Alameda Corridor-East Project, San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments