SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California High Speed Rail Authority this week issued a Request For Proposals for the contract to build track and related systems for the 119-mile first segment of the project, between Merced and Bakersfield.
The $3.5 billion contract will be one of the nation’s largest for rail infrastructure. Proposals from interested companies are due March 2, 2026; more details are on the RFP are available here. Along with track construction, the project will include the catenary electrical system, train control, and communications system.
“Bringing this contract to market today is a major milestone of our new delivery strategy: building faster, smarter, and more economically,” Authority CEO Ian Choudri said in a Nov. 26 press release. “Together with our innovative direct purchases of track and systems materials, this action puts us on an accelerated path to laying the first true high-speed rail track in the Western Hemisphere next year.”
The RFP was announced as the authority completed track installation at a 150-acre railhead facility in Kern County, which will serve as the logistics hub for the project and will soon began receiving shipments of track and other construction materials. From there, those materials will be delivered to the points of installation along the initial segment. Groundbreaking on that facility was held in January [see “Ceremony marks start …,” Trains.com, Jan. 7, 2025].
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
Maybe we should talk about infrastructure in general. From Charles home state as reported/copied and pasted from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. $1.7 billion to rebuild 3.5 miles and 7 years to rebuild and add two lanes to existing freeway. Existing right of way with no land purchase, no utility relocations, let alone legal battels. Just trying to expand an existing. We are spending massively on freeways as well. But hey, assuming Charles is bot anyways
The $1.7 billion Interstate 94 East-West corridor expansion project, which started Nov. 3 and will cover a 3.5-mile stretch of the freeway between 16th and 70th streets on Milwaukee’s west side, is scheduled to take eight years to complete.
The project will reconstruct aging roads, widen the freeway from three to four lanes in each direction, and redesign the Stadium Interchange to a diverging diamond interchange.
Construction is expected to finish in 2033, though some stretches of highway will be completed earlier, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
In America, freeways are rebuilt because they are at the end of life, and/or are too costly to maintain, and/or are unsafe, not to provide for more capacity. In contrast, CalHSR is completely about a new transportation alignment for theoretical traffic that may or may not materialize. In any event, it will never carry all that much traffic compared to a road.
I don’t have the numbers in front of me, so I’ll have to estimate. Wisconsin IH 94 in Milwaukee County carries at least 120k vehicles per day. Which is about 30k, 35k, 40k more VPD than Amtrak carries passengers in a day.
IH 94 from 16th to 70th Streets, notably including the Stadium Interchange, is pretty much the original construction, probably from the late 1950’s. Also notable is the necessity to build eight lanes in the narrow path between the two cemeteries west of the stadium. Traffic must be maintained during the several years. IH 94 has lasted, therefore, for about 65 to maybe almost 70 years, with periodic resurfacings and here and there a new bridge deck.
Mile per mile, IH 94 will probably cost less than Amtrak’s much-needed NEC rebuilding in Baltimore and in North Jersey to Manhattan.
Your points are valid, Timothy. I’m not arguing with you. I’m trying to put it into context. Nothing comes cheap these days.
Amtrak NEC improvements are desperately needed. CalHSR is an expensive toy sold on a bunch of lies.
How many tickets does CaLHSR have to sell to cover just the items in this article. Which are the tiniest, barely measurable, fractions of the overall cost LA to SanFran.
The wider public, not knowing much about rail, is horrified at the expense of a project from Merced to Bakersfield. My response? They don’t the half of how atrocious this project is. They don’t know a tenth of it.
I would like to know the progress Merced to San Jose on the north, and Bakersfield to Burbank to Los Angeles on the south. Have the routes been finalized? Property acquired? Environmental statements filed? Utility relocation started? Anyone know the costs? To call CalHSR a scandal doesn’t begin to describe it.
I live in a state were projects come in on time, on budget. Milwaukee’s Zoo, Mitchell and Marquette Interchanges on the interstate highways, for examples. CalHSR isn’t a cost overrun or a time delay. It’s an outright lie.