Officials in California have broken ground on the USA’s first high-speed railway at the site of the system’s new station in downtown Fresno.
A Tutor Perini Zachry/Parsons joint venture is constructing the initial 29-mile section from Avenue 17 in Madera County to East American Avenue in Fresno County. Construction Package 1 includes new viaducts, a tunnel and a bridge over the San Joaquin River.
Phase one of California’s first high-speed rail line will connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. The full 1,300-kilometre route could eventually extend the corridor to link to Sacramento in the north and San Diego in the south.
In a statement following the event on January 6, California High-Speed Rail Authority board of directors chairman Dan Richard said: “We now enter a period of sustained construction on the nation’s first high-speed rail system for the next five years in the Central Valley and for a decade after that across California.
“This is an investment that will forever improve the way Californians commute, travel, and live. And today is also a celebration of the renewed spirit that built California.”
In December, the authority awarded a Dragados/Flatiron/Shimmick consortium Construction Package 2-3 (CP 2-3) which includes a 105-kilometre section of the route in the Central Valley from Fresno to just north of Bakersfield.
