Officials Break Ground On Future RivCo Emissions Testing Facility

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Federal, state and local officials were on hand Friday at the future site of a 380,000-square-foot facility in Riverside that will serve as the Southern California headquarters for the Air Resources Board, housing a state-of-the-art emissions testing facility and employing more than 400 people.

The $419 million project has been in the works since March 2016, when the CARB board voted 8-3 to situate the structure on an 18-acre site belonging to UC Riverside.

"We're building the air quality research center for the world," UCR Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox told attendees at the groundbreaking ceremony.

CARB's current SoCal engine emissions research lab is in El Monte in Los Angeles County.

Its new headquarters "will include light-, medium- and heavy-duty test cells, with additional space for creating new testing methods for future generations of vehicles," according to a CARB statement. "There will also be space for enhanced onboard diagnostics and portable emissions measurement system development, and a separate chemistry laboratory."

According to CARB spokesman Stan Young, a contractor has not yet been selected, though several prospects are being vetted, and construction is likely to get underway in February.

The pitch to relocate the CARB facility in Riverside was made by Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey, Wilcox and representatives from the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce in early 2016. There were initial plans to put it in Pomona, which is also in L.A. County.

Then-Riverside County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Benoit, who died last December following a battle with cancer, was also involved and hailed the decision as "momentous," holding the promise of a "positive impact for generations" to come.

"We know we're in the right place," CARB Chair Mary Nichols said, adding that the site's proximity to a prominent research institution such as UCR was an important factor in the agency's decision-making process.

UCR's Center for Environmental Research & Technology currently works with the agency on various emissions-related projects.

The administrative and research complex will boast a "net-zero energy structure," meaning it will only draw the power absolutely essential to operations, according to CARB. The roof of the building will be covered in solar panels, generating at least 3.5 megawatts of electricity.

The campus site where the facility will be erected, sandwiched between MLK Boulevard and University Avenue, was previously reserved for agricultural research and contained citrus groves.

— By City News Service / Image via Pixabay