The California Transportation Commission this afternoon voted to allocate $323.6 million in state goods movement bond funding for the San Gabriel railroad trench project to be constructed by the Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority (ACE).  The funding is the largest single amount for a goods movement project in California from the Prop 1B transportation bond approved by voters in November 2006.

“With this allocation of construction funds we can move ahead with awarding a main construction contract for the San Gabriel Trench project in spring 2012, and begin creating much-needed construction jobs for our region,” said ACE Board Chairman Tim Spohn, a City of Industry Councilman.  “We appreciate the California Transportation Commission’s vote of confidence in our project.”

The project will create 8,964 jobs over four years of construction in Los Angeles County, a federally defined Economically Distressed Area with a 24-month average unemployment rate of 12.4%, and an unemployment rate 4.2% higher in July 2011 than the national average.  Archaeological excavation in advance of the main construction contract will commence in November.

ACE plans to construct a 1.4-mile railroad trench within the existing Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way through the City of San Gabriel.   

The San Gabriel Trench project is the largest single project in the ACE program of highway-railroad grade separations in the San Gabriel Valley along the ACE Trade Corridor carrying goods 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.  Nearly 60% of the containers travel inland along the ACE Trade Corridor to destinations across the country.