With growing infrastructure needs and more federal and state cash to fund projects, Los Angeles region infrastructure executives highlighted tens of billions of dollars in construction with near and longer term deadlines—and new commitments for work to benefit a broader array of residents and industry firms.

“Our infrastructure systems are under extraordinary pressure, and that’s important because infrastructure shapes the future of our society, our economy and our way of life,” Mark Pestrella, L.A. County Director of Public Works, told ENR’s inaugural Los Angeles Infrastructure Forum last month, produced in partnership with Infrastructure LA, a coalition of regional agencies.

He noted a $3.3-billion annual construction budget for his agency, with 130 active capital projects in a county with 10 million residents in a 4,000-sq-mile area. “There’s a lot going on and a lot of money,” said Pestrella. “But we want to invest this money properly and do it in a smart way with equity. Simply repairing our outmoded infrastructure systems with the same traditional designs and policies is just not going to be enough."

Pestrella and other county and state officials, as well as local company and union leaders, joined U.S. groups elsewhere in a movement to drive contracting opportunities for “historically underutilized businesses” by signing the Equity in Infrastructure Project Pledge.

Rewired Thinking

Regional rail agency LA Metro hopes its planned $120-billion buildout of mostly transit projects over 40 years—highlighted by CEO Stephanie Wiggins just as the city’s fire-damaged I-10 freeway reopened after a multiday shutdown—shows “just how much this region relies on cars for transportation … and the opportunity for transit,” she said. “If we are serious about addressing the climate crisis, we need to rewire our thinking.”

Within the next five years, seven major transit projects will open, Wiggins said, including a connector to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) airport and the D line subway extension. “If transit doesn't make sense for people, they won't take it, and we won't realize that positive climate impact."

The agency will use the 2028 Summer Olympic games in greater L.A. as a catalyst to encourage car-free transport. Anticipating 15 million spectators at more than a dozen locations, it will create a games route network with bus-only lanes to link event venues, hotels “and other hotspots,” she said, noting plans for more than 100 miles of dedicated permanent lanes for zero-emission or near-zero emission buses.

“We need to deliver a legacy of improved mobility,” said Tina Backstrom, senior transportation director in Los Angeles, adding that planned upgrades need to be done before, during and after the Olympics. “Now we’re looking at doing those improvements under a different lens,” she added, noting more investment in community outreach that has “increased project budgets.”

 An Optimized Airport

Among other transportation megaprojects updated was the two-phased upgrade program planned at LAX, with each estimated at $15 billion, said Beatrice Hsu, interim CEO of Los Angeles World Airports. The first phase includes a 2.4-mile, six-station automated people-mover system, a giant consolidated car rental facility and other improvements. The second involves construction of a new Terminal 9, concourse extensions and airfield upgrades.

“What we’re really doing is optimizing the existing airport footprint,” she said, adding that design team selection now is underway for the estimated 1.4-million-sq-ft terminal, the biggest single project.

Hsu also touted the Hire LAX local employment program, a partnership with local community colleges that has  graduated 375 students and placed more than 264 in career-path union  construction jobs. “We invest large sums of money into brick-and-mortar capital programs, but we also invest in people,” she said.

New Century for Water Supply

With California now importing between half and two-thirds of its water from outside sources that have become more vulnerable to supply risks, officials also are gearing up for a big boost over the next decade in regional water recycling that started in the 1960s, said Robert Ferrante, general manager and chief engineer of LA County Sanitation Districts, which handles wastewater services for more than 5.5 million people.

“Last century was a lot about growth. This century is going to be about sustainability for the region,” he said, noting agency annual capital spending of about $250 million to $350 million and major projects planned and underway.

Pestrella said the county's stormwater capture program, funded by a half-cent tax, is on track to invest $1.4 billion on projects in the next five years, with more than $600 million to underserved communities.

Work will also include facility seismic retrofits, as well as upgrades to treat PFAS chemicals and reduce nutrients, as new state and federal rules develop. Ferrante said more wastewater plant gas production from diverted organic landfill waste now has made the agency’s main plant energy self-sufficient.

Accelerated sewer infrastructure upgrades, stemming from a collapse a few years ago, have boosted that annual spending to more than $100 million from the $20-to-40-million range. “Ideally, within 20 to 25 years, we will have all of our sewers built with non-corrosive materials or lined, without any bare concrete,” Ferrante said.

One major project, set to finish in 2027, is the Clearwater effluent outfall tunnel to replace a pair of aging wastewater tunnels with a seven-mile-long precast concrete structure. Last year, it gained a $441-million loan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“We really expect advanced treatment of water and wastewater to be the future when it comes to developing new water supplies,” Ferrante added. "We are really trying to do our homework now to build the most efficient system from household to treatment back into the water supply so we have the best economies of scale and the lowest cost."

He noted an expanded push for groundwater storage and a more pronounced collaboration among numerous regional and local water supply agencies to develop “the big solution.'”

Major water recycling projects could involve investment of “at least” $15 billion to $20 billion over the next 10-20 years, Ferrante said, also noting a plan underway to develop a regional advanced water treatment training center and a push to engage students earlier in related careers.

Renewable Energy Goals

The energy transition is changing the regional power supply, said Martin Adams, general manager and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power. With 500,000 customers and 10 GW of generation capacity, it is the largest municipally-owned U.S. utility.

“We have a goal of 80% renewable energy by 2030 and are on track to meet that,” he said, although he termed “a huge challenge” the county goal to be 100% carbon-free by 2035, 10 years ahead of the state mandate. “About half of our generation capacity is fossil fuel today,” Adams said.

But he described as "on track" to complete in 2025 a project to replace a Utah-based coal-fired power plant that serves Los Angeles with an 840-MW facility that will initially blend into natural gas fuel a mix of 30% green hydrogen made from renewable energy. The plant would eventually burn 100% green hydrogen.

The power agency and Port of Los Angeles are set to be the biggest beneficiaries of California’s just-announced conditional win of a $1.2-billion federal hydrogen hub grant, Adams said. When final, the hub would propel projects to make using the fuel “a reality.”

But he added, "we have a tremendous amount of infrastructure work to do, not only just maintaining our existing [transmission] system, but also supporting stronger electrification in the future.”

Adams said the power agency created a "small business academy" to share with firms its current best procurement practices. "We are also looking at a change in governance," he added, and updated rules to expedite project awards, when needed.

Faster and Better

Regional experts also pointed to project delivery and resilience improvements.

Vincent Yu, LA County Public Works deputy director, said the county has embraced more alternative project delivery approaches such as progressive design-build, CM at risk and Construction Manager-General Contractor. 

Timothy Lindholm, LA Metro deputy chief program management officer, said the agency is in preconstruction on three projects using the approaches. "A lot of it started with convincing our board of directors that this was the right way to go," he said. "Governance bodies don't like surprises in general, and they specifically don't like surprises related to schedule and money."

On the 105 Express Lanes project, the CM-GC contractor found some $75 million of value engineering, Lindholm said.

“With supply chain issues we’ve seen recently, meeting schedule has made alternative approaches even more important,” said Mai Hattar, an engineering manager for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Rita Kampalath, county chief sustainability officer, said it will soon hire a climate resilience officer “as we progress toward a zero-emissions climate.”

She said “we're not only working through our operations, but in the last few years, we've updated our design criteria,” adding that "social vulnerability was one of the more interesting pieces" of the county resilience assessment. 

LA Metro "has a very big and robust training program for staff, designers and contractors both online and in person," said Cris Liban, its chief sustainability officer, to insure resilience frameworks are incorporated into procurement documents, design criteria and project delivery. 

He said the agency is assessing how infrastructure demands ahead are affecting workforce development, noting that "training required for many skills must be developed to get to where we need to go into the future.”