California High-Speed Rail Authority Completes Merced Avenue Overcrossing

The Authority finishes the Merced Avenue overdressing.

Courtesy of California High-Speed Rail Authority

KERN COUNTY, Calif. – The California High-Speed Rail Authority has finished its seventh high-speed rail structure, and the Merced Avenue overcrossing is now open.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority finished its seventh high-speed rail structure in Central Valley, it announced in a news release. The Merced Avenue overcrossing, located in Kern County, is on State Route 43. The grade separation is 509 feet long, 43 feet wide, and “takes traffic over SR 43, as well as BNSF and future high-speed rail lines.” Construction on the crossing began three years ago and took 15 pre-cast concrete girders, more than 3,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 245 pre-cast deck panels. 

Central Valley Regional Director, Garth Fernandez, commented that Merced Avenue is the “third structure to be completed in Kern County in a month and exemplifies the progress we continue to make. . . This is thanks to the more than 1,300 workers dispatched every day all across the Central Valley bringing the first electrified high-speed rail system to California.” The Merced Avenue overcrossing joins the Authority’s other completed projects, which include the Elkhorn Avenue overcrossing in Fresno County and the Poso Avenue Underpass in Wasco, among others.