After three years and ahead of schedule, the Durfee Avenue Grade Separation project will be completed, and Durfee Avenue will reopen to traffic later this month. Construction crews are currently completing the last phases of construction, with work focused along the new Durfee Avenue roadway and railroad bridge in preparation for the opening.
When completed, the new roadway underpass on Durfee Avenue, between Beverly Road and Whittier Boulevard and a new railroad bridge will be delivered to the City of Pico Rivera and Union Pacific Railroad for immediate use and benefit to the community.
The completed project will also minimize emergency services response time due to previously blocked access, eliminate harmful emissions from idle cars waiting for trains to pass, and noise pollution from the train’s horn will be reduced as they will no longer have to blow their horn when approaching the area previously constituted by the crossing. Area residents will also no longer have to deal with traffic delays and compete with crossing trains that were projected to have increased to 91 trains by 2025. Additionally, safety for pedestrians and bicyclists along the newly-paved designated bike paths and sidewalks will also be improved. The Durfee Avenue Grade Separation Project employed an estimated 653 employees with over 100,000 total work hours dedicated to the delivery of the project.
The Alameda Corridor-East (ACE) Project, under the leadership of the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments’ (SGVCOG) Capital Projects and Construction Committee, aims to mitigate the vehicle delays and collisions at rail-roadway crossings resulting from growing freight rail traffic in the San Gabriel Valley. The ACE Project program consists of grade separations throughout the San Gabriel Valley and neighboring cities, where the road goes over or under the railroad tracks. The program has successfully completed 19 grade separations and safety and mobility improvements at 53 crossings (resulting in the elimination of 23 at-grade crossings) throughout the Union Pacific freight train corridor.
For more information about this project, residents may call the Project Helpline at 888.ACE.1426, visit the project website at theaceproject.org or follow the project’s progress on Twitter @DurfeeGS.
