California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) released the Draft 2018 Business Plan that acknowledges cost increases affecting each segment of the project ranging from 20-35% and revised schedules that would push out delivery dates for the Silicon Valley to Central Valley Line and Phase 1 System. The draft plan acknowledges and responds to changed circumstances and emphasizes a new way of doing business moving forward.
“The Draft 2018 Business Plan presents a strategy to implement the nation’s first truly high-speed rail system in the face of challenges that projects around the world of similar magnitude and complexity have faced and successfully overcome,” Authority’s CEO Brian Kelly said.
In the face of these challenges, the draft business plan proposes to continue an investment strategy that builds infrastructure, linked over time, to provide mobility, economic and environmental benefits and initiate high-speed rail service as soon as possible.
Under the draft, the Authority will complete the 191.5-km segment in the Central Valley and complete environmental review for the entire Phase 1 System between San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim by 2022, as required by the federal grant agreement.
The draft’s priorities also envisage the extension of the railway link from San Francisco to Bakersfield, as well as the delivery of 360.5 km of HSR which includes the construction of the railway connection in the Central Valley (Madera to Bakersfield) and in Silicon Valley (San Francisco to Gilroy).
Currently, the teams are working of 20 construction sites with along 191.5 km line in the Central Valley and three structures are completed.
With the release of the draft business plan, the Authority is seeking public comment until May 7, 2018.
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