County says Harupa Road grade‑separation will finish in late 2027 after years of delay and rising costs

Riverside County transportation officials on Thursday told the Jurupa Valley City Council that the long‑running Harupa Road railroad grade‑separation project now carries an estimated cost of $184,000,000 and is expected to be finished in late 2027, after a series of schedule slips and added requirements from Union Pacific Railroad.

The update, presented by John Ashlock, Construction Engineering Division Manager for the Riverside County Transportation Department, described completed work — including one half of the Van Buren Boulevard bridge, a connector road and a nearly finished pump station — and the remaining tasks, which county staff said hinge on relocating active tracks onto temporary alignments before the new Union Pacific bridge and the northbound Van Buren bridge can be built.

The exchange with council members focused on the reasons for repeated timeline extensions, the effect on nearby businesses and whether additional financial relief or communications with merchants can be expanded. County officials said the primary drivers of delay and cost growth were COVID‑era price and labor increases, later Union Pacific design and safety requirements, and the time it took to negotiate the construction and maintenance agreement with Union Pacific — an agreement Ashlock said was approved in January 2024.

"The project initially started with a cost of $133,400,000 and it has increased considerably to $184,000,000," Ashlock said, adding that changes also reflected new Union Pacific and AREMA standards and coordination work on utilities and rights of way.

Why the project slipped: county explanation and timeline

County staff outlined a sequence that city leaders said repeatedly produced added years: design and construction work that…