A little tip to HSR team: now's not a good time to miss deadlines
Image by Wikimedia Commons
Politico reports that a new state Inspector General report says that CA’s beyond-troubled High Speed Rail project has whiffed on meeting land purchase and construction deadlines, even as GOP admin in D.C. looks askance at the whole boondoggle.
The new report highlights the continued hurdles the project, with an estimated price tag of $88 billion to $128 billion, faces as it attempts to begin passenger service between the central California cities of Bakersfield and Modesto between 2030 and 2033 — just as President Donald Trump casts it as a boondoggle.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday that the Federal Railroad Administration would review $4.1 billion in federal grant agreements with the state — and determine if that funding should be withheld.
The report found that progress on 52 miles of track not yet under construction is at risk of being delayed because of challenges state officials face in securing agreements to relocate utility facilities, like power lines and water supply.
Friday’s report comes on the heels of another one earlier this month that found construction on the initial 171-mile Central Valley line is unlikely to be completed by the High-Speed Rail Authority’s 2033 timeline.
State Republicans jumped on that report, encouraging Trump to follow through on his threat to investigate the decades-long project to connect Los Angeles to the Bay Area.
The independent auditor, established by state lawmakers in 2023, laid part of the blame at the feet of the High-Speed Rail Authority, noting that the public agency has a limited number of lawyers to review agreements with third-party groups and no clear guidelines on how quickly staff must complete internal processes.
The review found that HSRA still needs to complete 12 of the 38 needed agreements the agency has identified before moving on to the construction phase.
The agency in response said it largely agrees with the report’s assessment and is already in the process of making the internal changes recommended.
Read the whole thing here.
Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity
Opp Now enthusiastically welcomes smart, thoughtful, fair-minded, well-written comments from our readers. But be advised: we have zero interest in posting rants, ad hominems, poorly-argued screeds, transparently partisan yack, or the hateful name-calling often seen on other local websites. So if you've got a great idea that will add to the conversation, please send it in. If you're trolling or shilling for a candidate or initiative, forget it.