Magnolia Avenue Grade Separation

Magnolia Avenue is a major arterial in Riverside County, serving as a major traffic corridor connecting the cities of Corona and Riverside. Increasing vehicle traffic due to regional population growth and rising train traffic from the ports had resulted in severe congestion and delays at the existing at-grade BNSF Railway crossing. These delays affect the traveling public, and hindered emergency vehicular access resulting in increased response times by emergency personnel in and out of the area.

This project has improved safety as it has removed the existing at-grade conflict between vehicular traffic and rail traffic. The completed project reduced congestion, provides continuous access for emergency vehicles, reduced traffic congestion, improved level of service (LOS), enhanced reliability and expedited goods movement.

NCM key staff while working for another firm managed all facets of this project from PA/ED to PS&E. NCM’s Edward Ng, Mohan Char and Mark Stiller while working at another firm served in the roles of Project Manager, Structures Task Manager and Senior bridge Engineer respectively for this highly complex grade separation project and was responsible for managing and assisting in all facets of the project preliminary engineering, environmental documents, plans, specification, estimates, construction cost certifications, quantities, bid support, encroachment permit approvals, negotiations with railroads (BNSF and UPRR), and right-of-way and utility coordination.

The design team developed a unique structure configuration due to the high skew of the existing at-grade crossing to minimize impacts to railroad right-of-way and adjacent flood control channel.  Extensive coordination with BNSF combined swiftly addressing of BNSF’s concerns and comments resulted in timely approvals of the PS&E package and signing of C&M Agreement. Complex traffic staging required unique construction sequencing bridge and roadway elements.