Property issues spook high-speed rail board into changing its ways for two new sections

CHSRA is pursuing first major award of new federal infrastructure funds.

CHSRA

Property acquisitions, or lack thereof, have killed the momentum of the high-speed rail construction project in California.

So for the next round of contract awards, the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) is going to change the game.

The board will meet on Feb. 17 and vote to ask contractors to submit their qualifications for initial design work for a 34-mile project that covers the northern edge of Madera to downtown Merced and a 19-mile segment from Shafter to Bakersfield.

CHSRA wants the winning bidders of those two separate jobs to provide information on how they plan on delivering work on time. Completion of the two projects, combined with work already done to connect Madera to Fresno, Fresno to Tulare-Kern and Tulare-Kern to Shafter, would form what the agency is calling the backbone of the high-speed rail route in California.

In the past, CHSRA allowed contractors to use the design-build delivery method, and problems and delays occurred when the needed property was not acquired in time. The contracts up to bid would ask the winners to produce plans and maps representing about 30% of pre-construction design work. The contractors will need to make a recommendation on how construction will be executed once route footprints are determined. Design-build could be used later on in the process, and design-bid-build would be another option.

Currently there is 10% of property that needs to be purchased for the Madera-to-Shafter section. As for the Merced-to-Bakersfield extension, CHSRA is not acquiring any right-of-way until the footprint is determined.

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