Work to demolish a Mobil gas station at Nogales Street and Gale Avenue clears the way for a grade separation project designed to reduce traffic congestion, pollution, and train horn and bell noise.

The Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority began demolition of the Rowland Heights gas station it is acquiring at the northwest corner of the intersection in August as part of the initial construction phase for the estimated $95.9 million project, according to officials.

The demolition includes the removal of the underground storage tanks at the station and will clear a path for moving on to the next phases on the Nogales Street Grade Separation and Roadway Widening Project.  When completed, the project will include a six-lane roadway underpass and double-track railway bridge that will separate trains from traffic on Nogales between San Jose Avenue and Gale Avenue/Walnut Drive North, according to the authority.

Around 45,000 vehicles travel Nogales Street each day and traffic is negatively affected by the 33 trains that go through the intersection daily.

Before crews start work on the underpass, Gale Avenue and Walnut Drive North at Nogales will be widened to two lanes in each direction to ease bottleneck conditions at the intersection.

Construction on the underpass project is expected to begin in early 2012.

The authority has made this project and others a priority “to help create thousands of much-needed construction jobs and complete these nationally significant projects for the benefit of our communities and our region,” Tim Spohn, chairman of the ACE Construction Authority Board of Directors, said in the newsletter.