A potential contract for constructing the long-awaited light-rail extension from Pomona into San Bernardino County was rejected because the bid ran hundreds of millions of dollars over budget due to inflation, rising labor costs, market uncertainty and Trump’s tariffs, officials announced on Wednesday, March 26.
The lone bid from Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. to build the 3.2-mile A Line extension, which would have been the first LA Metro line to connect Los Angeles with the Inland Empire, was canceled by the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority Board after a lengthy closed session.
“Despite numerous efforts by the Construction Authority to collaborate, including making dozens of contract changes requested by Kiewit to reduce costs, Kiewit’s best and final bid offer was delivered to the Authority last week and remained hundreds of millions of dollars above expert estimates and available funding. As a result, it’s both impossible and inappropriate to move forward with their bid,” said board chair and Claremont City Councilman Ed Reece.
The bid ran $350 million over the Construction Authority’s most conservative estimate for design and construction work. It came in at $994 million or about 54% higher than budgeted, explained Lisa Levy Buch, Construction Authority spokesperson.
“We decided to say no thank you and cancel the procurement,” explained Construction Authority CEO Habib Balian in an interview. The process began in March 2024 and was to allow for construction of the five-year project this year, with completion in 2030.
Due to the tremendous uncertainty in the construction industry, the Construction Authority will split the bids in the future. In June, it is hoping to issue a request for a full design of the project. Later, a construction bid will be sought based on that design.
Balian said the two-step process will reduce the cost of future bids by controlling uncertainty costs. “First we get a design. Then we will bring in a builder. We believe this will squeeze as much risk out of the project,” he said.
The new process, if successful, pushed back the completion date of the project to 2031, Balian said.
Emotions were running high Wednesday for a project that has seen numerous twists and turns.
In 2018, the bids also ran high, in part due to President Trump’s first tariffs. The high cost estimate bifurcated the project, allowing only the Azusa to Pomona portion to be funded, leaving the Claremont-Montclair leg without funding. The Pomona extension was completed Jan. 3 and will open to the public sometime this summer.
The Construction Authority tried in 2021, 2022 and 2023 to get funding for the A Line to go to Claremont, then Montclair, the last leg — but failed. The state bypassed the project for funding. Then on Oc. 31, 2024, LA Metro awarded $798 million for building the short but historic A (Gold) Line extension from Pomona to Claremont and Montclair.
But on Wednesday, the celebrations waned for the full funding that included construction, parking, landscaping and other incidentals.
“I am disappointed,” said Montclair Mayor John Dutrey. “It is another hurdle. This project seems to have a lot of bad luck.”
A week prior, the board heard a report from the chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America warning of higher costs and risks associated with the light-rail project.
Balian called the report “sobering,” because it highlighted the factors that are driving up rail construction. These included “recently announced tariffs” by President Donald Trump raising the cost of steel and aluminum products from China and other countries by 25% that took effect March 12.
Besides higher costs for materials, the report noted other factors that would drive up construction costs, such an increase in wages due to not enough construction workers and the Trump administration immigration policies. All these factors are “hitting the contracting industry hard, especially in California,” the report concluded.
If built, the Claremont and Montclair stations would add 8,000 daily boardings, or about half of the A Line’s total adjusted ridership, reports estimated.
Commuters from the Inland Empire who drive west on the 210, 10 and 60 freeways in the morning to jobs in Los Angeles County, and then drive east to home would have a light rail line to ride instead of driving on traffic-choked freeways.
Extending the light rail line into Montclair would take about 15,000 car trips off the roads each day and reduce 26.7 million vehicle miles travelled annually, eliminating 1.75 metric tons of carbon emissions that add to global climate change, the Authority reported.