The California Excessive Velocity Rail Authority’s board of administrators supported new suggestions for a deliberate rail phase between Los Angeles and Anaheim, clearing it for a important environmental overview after the preliminary proposal obtained pushback from the group.
The ultimate environmental report is anticipated to take greater than a yr to complete, outgoing Chief Government Brian Kelly mentioned at Thursday’s board assembly, calling it the “ultimate requirement we have now on environmental documentation for section one of many high-speed rail system” in compliance with federal grant obligations.
The primary section to attach the state features a 494-mile rail line from Anaheim to San Francisco. Building is at the moment underway on a 119-mile stretch within the Central Valley.
Suggestions for the 33-mile rail phase from Los Angeles to Anaheim contains 4 mainline tracks that might be utilized by the bullet prepare, different passenger rail and BNSF freight trains. It eliminates the preliminary plan to develop a freight facility for BNSF, which owns the railroad stretch from Los Angeles to Anaheim, within the metropolis of Colton that might have housed trains not in operation. The thought obtained pushback from the Colton group and from BNSF.
The suggestions embrace a prepare upkeep facility at both E. fifteenth Avenue in Los Angeles or E. twenty sixth Avenue in Vernon, at-grade crossings in Anaheim the place the freeway and high-speed rail line could be degree, and no intermediate stations. The proposed line would come with underground, above-ground and surface-level parts.
The price range for these new suggestions could be about $6.9 billion as an alternative of the earlier estimate of greater than $9 billion. The drop in value is due partly to the lack of the Colton facility.
The authority mentioned it’s working to increase building from Merced south to Bakersfield and plans to showcase mockups of the prepare at California’s State Truthful in Sacramento in July. Whereas progress inches ahead, the board continued to emphasize the necessity for a clear imaginative and prescient amid the numerous challenges.
“I need to ensure that we don’t take a look at this as one other commuter rail, and that we take into consideration the larger image as we go alongside,” board member Lynn Schenk mentioned. “We’ve got to look to the longer term to ensure that that is going to be high-speed rail: San Diego, L.A., Central Valley to the Bay Space.”
Board Member Martha Escutia requested for a deeper understanding of how contracts are procured for various building and manufacturing tasks.
“I see the schedule of all these multimillion-dollar … contracts and I really feel very reluctant to vote on this as a result of I simply need to ensure that the method is truthful,” she mentioned, stressing the necessity for impartiality.
Kelly mentioned that the “procurement course of we run is open, truthful, clear.”
“If any board member desires to overview the scoring, we are able to make that accessible to the board members to take action,” he mentioned.
