The first construction contracts for the Valley line were awarded almost eight years ago – before much of the land for construction was purchased, before most of the engineering design work for the route was done, and before many needed agreements with utilities, adjacent railroads, and local government agencies were completed. “Phasing allows us to get the system going” on an electrified line that is distinct from existing freight rail lines and also separated from roads and highways so that there are no at-grade road crossings. “We believe we can meet all the operating requirements” with one set of tracks along with sections of passing tracks, Kelly told board members Tuesday. Kelly said building only one set of tracks as an initial phase reflects the agency’s ability to construct what it has money to achieve, and could persist even into passenger operations along the route. Kelly said one set of tracks would allow for the testing of train sets and other systems before early passenger operations commence between Bakersfield and Merced in about 2029. The pandemic contributed to even more delay in acquisition of more than 2,000 pieces of property needed for construction of the line in the San Joaquin Valley, including eminent domain or condemnation cases being stalled as courts have closed or shrunk their hours.Īdditionally, the business plan now calls for building a single set of tracks, instead of two, along most of the 119-mile stretch. The delays are due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reportedly idled at least 244 workers who had to quarantine because they either contracted or were exposed to the virus over the past year. The latest edition of the authority’s business plan, in the meantime, reflects an ongoing increase in costs and schedule delays in construction in the Valley, as well as further scaling back the plans.īesides the $1.3 billion increase in the budget for the Madera-Shafter section, the rail agency now forecasts that the work won’t be completed until late 2023 – about a year beyond a deadline set by grant agreements with the Federal Railroad Administration. The authority’s goal is for the money to be included in Newsom’s proposed 2021-22 budget. Tuesday’s 9-0 vote by the authority board effectively starts a 90-day clock for review of the request, during which Annis said he expects the state Legislature will likely hold hearings. The lawsuit argues that the 119-mile stretch of construction does not truly constitute a “usable segment” of a statewide system, and that by allowing the bond funds to be used that way represented an unconstitutional change in what voters approved when for the bond measure was passed almost 13 years ago. In presentations Tuesday about the request for bond funds and on a revised business plan due to be submitted to legislators this spring, Annis and authority CEO Brian Kelly said they also have high hopes that the Biden administration will restore a $929 million rail improvement grant awarded to the state in 2010 that was canceled by the Federal Railroad Administration under President Donald Trump in 2019. With the bond money, Annis said, “we can continue to open new job sites and complete more miles of guideway for track construction.” If not, he added, “we would have to slow construction, possibly close existing job sites and reduce the workforce on the project.” The new injection of bond money, if it is approved, would allow the rail agency to use that instead of uncertain cap-and-trade auction funds, Annis said, allowing greater flexibility for the auction money to be used in future work. Another $2.6 billion has been spent from prior allocations of Proposition 1A bond money. The authority has either spent or earmarked about $3 billion in cap-and-trade money for the Valley section, and has also spent about $2.1 billion in federal stimulus funds that were awarded to California during the Obama administration. That auction, and two subsequent auctions in August and November, cost the agency about $288 million in projected cap-and-trade income, officials estimate. But the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic knocked the May 2020 auction down to only about $6 million. The quarterly cap-and-trade auctions have generally amounted to an average of about $180 million for the high-speed rail authority, Annis said.