Los Angeles has awarded two transportations projects worth a total of $800m to joint ventures involving Colorado-based civil engineer Flatiron.
In the first, it will work with Californian contractor Myers & Sons to carry out a project for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) on the Interstate-105, one of the main traffic arteries in the south of the city.
The I-105 ExpressLanes Project is a $500m scheme to convert two of the highway’s lanes to “ExpressLanes” – that is, ones in which high-occupancy vehicles, vans and buses travel free whereas solo drivers are charged a toll. It will also add two new ExpressLanes, one to either carriageway.
The project will be carried out using the construction management/general contractor procurement route, which aims to minimise the risk of delay and overspending. This system has a two-phase structure in which a company designs the scheme as the construction manager, then bids to become the general contractor that delivers it. According to Flatiron, this is the first time LA Metro has used the method.
The second project consists of improvement to the G-Line Bus Rapid Transit service. This will be handled by Valley Transit Partners, a joint venture between Flatiron and Stacy and Witbeck, a Californian company specialising in the transport sector.
This $300m scheme aims to improve operating speeds, capacity and safety of the G-Line busway in the San Fernando Valley in northern Los Angeles.
The improvements include the construction of grade separations and the installation of smart gating systems at street crossings, both of which are designed to reduce incidents between vehicles and buses and to increase the speed of buses along the corridor.
Flatiron is a subsidiary of German contractor Hochtief, which is controlled by Spanish construction group ACS.
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