(The following story by Imran Ghori appeared on The Press-Enterprise website on July 9.)
COLTON, Calif. — San Bernardino Associated Government officials are hoping to untangle the region’s biggest rail bottleneck, but members of the transportation planning agency’s board are not all on the same page on how to do that.
The agency is set to vote Wednesday on awarding a $3.7 million contract to begin preliminary design, engineering and environmental work for the Colton Crossing, an intersection along Interstate 10 in Colton where the Union Pacific and BNSF railroad lines meet.
More than 150 trains, carrying goods from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports to the rest of the country, go through the Inland region every day but many of them must come to a halt at the crossing, which becomes a four-way stop.
The study, which will take about three years to complete, will look at a proposal to build a bridge at least 30 feet tall so the east-west Union Pacific line would be elevated above the north-south BNSF line.
The project, which is still several years away from construction, is estimated to cost $150 million to $200 million, according to SANBAG.
At least two members of the SANBAG board plan to ask their colleagues to look at an alternative approach. Fontana Mayor Mark Nuaimi and Colton Mayor Kelly Chastain abstained in a subcommittee vote on the project last month, saying the study should look at an alternative design in which one of the railroad lines would go underground instead of building an elevated bridge.
Chastain said her city is concerned about noise, traffic and aesthetic issues with the preferred design. At this point, all they’re asking is that an alternative also be studied, she said.
“This is something we’re going to have to live with for a lifetime,” Chastain said.
SANBAG Executive Director Tony Grasso said the study will include a look at alternatives but he said trenching one of the rail lines could be logistically and financially difficult.
“It could be at least three times more expensive, maybe more,” Grasso said.
Trenching either one of the rail lines also poses problems because of space constraints and the need to keep the lines running while the project is built, he said. For instance, a parallel line would have to be built if the BNSF line, which Metrolink also uses, is trenched, Grasso said.
San Bernardino County Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, whose tenure as board president ended last month, said he too is concerned about expense.
“I’m not opposed to having them ask the question,” he said. “I’d like to know if there’s any true early-on validity to that approach
So far no funding is allocated for the project but SANBAG is looking at a number of potential sources, including the railroads, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and state and federal funding for goods-movement projects.