California High-Speed Rail Authority meets federal funding deadline well ahead of schedule

Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
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The FRA and California have resolved their legal dispute.
CHSRA

About ten days ago, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) secured federal funding prior to the deadline.

On Feb. 26, The California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) submitted the final state match to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding grant. With this action, the Authority has completed the matching funding requirements of the 2010 grant 22 months ahead of schedule.

In mid-February, the FRA approved $846 million in state match dollars previously submitted, bringing the total approved to almost $1.6 billion. The FRA will now review the remaining grant match submittals.

“This milestone demonstrates the importance of a strong and functional partnership with the FRA and the federal government to support the high-speed rail program,” said Authority Chief Financial Officer Brian Annis. “We were committed to upholding our end of these funding agreements, and we have done so.”

The Authority used the $2.5 billion in ARRA funding by the statutory deadline of September 2017. As approved by the FRA, the Authority first used the federal funds, followed by spending state matching funds no later than the end of 2022.

The final invoice package is for $64 million and includes construction work performed in October and November 2020 by Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons in Fresno, and in October 2020 by Dragados/Flatiron on the section that includes Hanford and Corcoran. Currently, construction is underway on 119 miles in the Central Valley, with 35 active job sites and more than 5,200 labor jobs created to date. For the latest on construction progress visit www.buildhsr.com.

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