Because the earliest plans for the California Excessive-Pace Rail Challenge, the phase connecting the Central Valley to Los Angeles has been fraught with controversy and technical conundrums. Political strain and different considerations finally pushed the route away from the Grapevine and over the Tehachapis to the Antelope Valley, the place it’s deliberate to run alongside the State Route 14 hall into the San Fernando Valley.
A ultimate environmental overview for a crucial 38-mile leg from Palmdale to Burbank was launched Friday. If accepted by the authority’s board of administrators subsequent month, your entire route between Los Angeles and San Francisco can be environmentally cleared for development.
The California Excessive-Pace Rail Authority’s board of administrators is predicted to decide in late June on whether or not to simply accept the doc, which incorporates a number of attainable variations of the route with consideration to considerations about price, aesthetics and environmental impacts raised by neighborhood members over the previous two years.
“This environmental doc is the fruits of years of research and stakeholder engagement and is a large milestone in connecting high-speed rail between two of our main metropolitan facilities, San Francisco and Los Angeles,” outgoing authority Chief Govt Brian Kelly mentioned in a press release.
The state has spent roughly $144.5 million growing plans for the Palmdale-Burbank part. An approval of the environmental overview would clear a significant impediment, however others stay. Whereas the company has secured funding for the development of 119 miles at the moment underway within the Central Valley, there are nonetheless billions of {dollars} wanted to finish the road all through the remainder of the state which have but to be secured.
The popular route from Palmdale to Burbank is a 38-mile stretch that will join the Palmdale Transportation Heart to the Hollywood Burbank Airport. It might embrace 4 tunnels starting from about 12 to 13 miles in size and would function underground by the Acton space, the Angeles Nationwide Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains Nationwide Monument so as to scale back impacts on communities and environmental assets. The journey between the 2 stations would take about quarter-hour.
“Palmdale to Burbank is perhaps probably the most fascinating part of engineering on your entire line. The tunnels might be a number of the longest prepare tunnels within the Western Hemisphere,” mentioned spokesperson Jim Patrick.
The undertaking’s solely longer tunnel can be the 13-mile stretch on the Pacheco Go in Santa Clara County.
The Palmdale-Burbank plan is predicted to be thought of on the board’s June 26-27 assembly in Burbank.
“If our board of administrators approves this doc and the proposed undertaking at their summer season board assembly, we could have environmentally cleared 463 of the 494-mile Part 1 system between the Bay Space and Los Angeles/Anaheim,” Kelly mentioned.
The greater than 30-mile phase between Los Angeles and Anaheim is at the moment beneath a primary part of an environmental overview. That course of to finish the overview is predicted to take greater than a yr.
The ultimate environmental overview for the phase between Union Station and Burbank was beforehand accepted by the board.
The plan for the Burbank-to-Palmdale portion is accessible for public overview from now till the June board assembly. At the moment, the board may approve the plan and choose a most well-liked route. If the board wants extra time for overview, Patrick mentioned it may delay the approval course of or ask for reconsideration and reopen it for public remark.
