Durfee Avenue Grade Separation

Union Pacific Railroad | Pico Rivera, CA
Photo of grade separation at Durfee Avenue in Pico Rivera, California

The $108 million Durfee Avenue Grade Separation project in Pico Rivera, CA, southeast of Los Angeles, separated Durfee Avenue from existing Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) tracks. The project was a critical piece of the Alameda Corridor-East (ACE) program, a massive construction effort aimed at mitigating vehicle delays and collisions at rail-roadway crossings in the San Gabriel Valley.

Benesch performed the structural and track design review for the project on behalf of UPRR. Benesch also served as UPRR’s Public Project Engineering Consultant (PPEC) and performed construction observation.

Supported by drilled shaft substructures, the new 95-foot-long two-span railway bridge carries two mainline tracks over vehicular and pedestrian traffic on Durfee Avenue. The structure was designed for Cooper E80 Live Load plus impact with a 30-inch maximum total depth of ballast and capacity for one additional future track.

During the construction phase, numerous elements had to be tightly managed to facilitate the safe completion of the grade separation. With more than 13,000 vehicles relying on Durfee Avenue each day, Benesch worked with the agency and their contractor to get the underpass ready to open to traffic while protecting UPRR interests.