The Gold Line will be going to Pomona.

After a tense debate, the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments Governing Board voted Thursday, Aug. 8, to give up $126 million in discretionary transportation dollars to fully fund the Gold Line foothill extension to Pomona.

By a 27-0 vote late Thursday, the regional body agreed to give the Gold Line Construction Authority the money, paving the way for the awarding of a design-build contract on Wednesday, Aug. 14, for the $1.5 billion project.

“I am ecstatic and excited for the region,” Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval said minutes after the historic unanimous vote that saw mayors and council members of the San Gabriel Valley come together, many even hugging each other after the vote. “We all win,” he said. (Seven board members were absent).

The money allows the Construction Authority to extend the 31-mile light-rail into Pomona and not stop at La Verne, as was previously agreed due to budget constraints. Also, it allows for an option to continue the line to Claremont and Montclair if additional funding is granted within two years, said Habib Balian, CEO of the Construction Authority.

“We know our job. To get this built to Pomona by 2025,” he said, looking relieved.

The project will extend the longest line in the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s system and could be the first to cross into San Bernardino County. The Gold Line operates from Monterey Park to downtown L.A.’s Union Station, then goes northeast through Pasadena before terminating at Azusa Pacific University and Citrus College in Glendora.

With the funding, the Construction Authority can award a contract to extend the all-electric train line through Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and now, Pomona, closer to originally planned. To get to Claremont and Montclair, however, the authority would need about $500 million in additional funds, Balian said. A further extension to Ontario International Airport has been talked about but is iffy.

The 34-member Council of Governments board required that LA Metro give back any of the money not spent on the Gold Line extension. Also, the board asked for a commitment from Metro to “explore funding for other projects within the sub-region” that may have benefited from the money.

Following the vote Thursday, the Council of Governments has $73 million remaining of the $199 million discretionary funds Metro sent from Measure M, a half-cent sales tax measure passed by L.A. County voters in November 2016. But it’s possible those leftover funds may not be enough to cover unexpected cost overruns for two future projects: realignment of the 57-60 freeways in Diamond Bar and City of Industry, and widening State Route 71, also known as the Corona Freeway.

City of Industry Councilwoman Cory Moss was concerned about giving up money that could be used later to fix the 57/60 convergence, a 2-mile stretch that often causes accidents and traffic fatalities and was ranked No. 1 for delays and truck accidents in the state in 2017. But she was assured by Metro and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis they would work hard to acquire the necessary funding for the $420 million project, of which about $300 million is secured.

“You would have our commitment,” Richard Clarke, Metro chief program management officer, told the council board. Abdollah Ansari, Metro’s executive officer for highway programs, said the agency is confident the project will receive state funding. Clarke said Metro could start the project two years earlier than planned, in 2022.

“It makes sense to work together and get this (Gold Line) project done and then see that project (57/60) get going,” Moss said, after voting for the Gold Line allocation.

Balian stressed that the Gold Line extension has regional benefits, not just to those foothill cities with stations. To curtail it by extending only so far as La Verne would be a loss of its capacity to move cars off the clogged freeways and onto the light-rail train, thereby reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and extreme weather. Solis said having both Metrolink and the Gold Line in Pomona and eventually Claremont and Montclair would give transit riders more choices.

For example, riders from Pomona and western San Bernardino County can take the Gold Line at $1.75 per ride to destinations or workplaces not served by the San Bernardino Metrolink line, such as City of Hope, Monrovia and Arcadia, Pasadena and Chinatown, Balian said.

“People from San Bernardino County can take Metrolink to Pomona, get off the train and take the Gold Line,” Balian said. “They work together. They are not in competition.”

Without the extra $126 million for the Gold Line, the 12.3-mile extension from Glendora to Montclair would have been delayed at least two years and would have increased in price due to escalating costs of labor and tariffs on raw materials, according to the Construction Authority.

In November, bids on the extension to Montclair came in $570 million higher than expected, due to tariffs imposed on imported steel by the Trump administration, a hot economy driving up wages, and a market flooded with rail and transit projects allowing bidders to set higher prices. This caused the authority to plan a shorter line to La Verne. Metro pushed for the cities to use their discretionary funds to build it to Pomona.

Prices for steel and cement have been rising since the initial estimates and requests for proposals in 2016. A report from Kenneth Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors of America, points to rising material and labor costs as the main culprits.

In January, Metro said it would give the project an extra $97 million — since raised to $126 million — but the source of funding was in doubt until Thursday’s vote.