Archive | January, 2016

CARRD’s Updated cost estimates and oversight concerns

Today we submitted comments for the Assembly Budget Subcommittee meeting focusing on High Speed Rail Oversight. Our main points of concern: In this case, construction bids and construction estimates are not (and have never been) apples-to-apples comparison. There is no public document that incorporates, tracks and forecasts all relevant costs for the ICS project, relative […]

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California state legislature oversight hearings for high speed rail project

There are four committees in the California state legislature with explicit oversight responsibilities for the California High Speed Rail Authority. In the Assembly (California’s equivalent of the House of Representatives): 1 Budget Subcommittee 3 on Resources and Transportation – currently chaired by Richard Bloom (D-50) California has a fiscal year that ends on June 30th. The governor’s […]

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Britain’s Embattled Network Rail: Why did California hire them?

In June 2015, the California High Speed Rail Authority (“CHSRA”) awarded a seven year, $700 million contract to manage the overall project to a consortium led by Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB). Network Rail was part of the winning consortium. Who is Network Rail anyway? British Rail, the old nationalized railway system, was dismembered a number of […]

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Status of Environmental mitigation projects in the Central Valley

The California High Speed Rail Authority’s website states  the Authority “is committed to working with local, state and federal agencies and local stakeholders to develop a high-speed rail system that preserves open spaces and environmental resources that make California golden. Because the project is starting work in the Central Valley in the summer of 2013, the […]

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Why did Oakland’s Shimmick Construction bail out of CP 2-3 team a week before contract signing?

We clearly are not paying close enough attention to the high speed rail project. A team of Dragados (35%), Flatiron West (35%) and Shimmick (30%) had the winning bid for CP 2-3, a 65 mile stretch of civil construction in California’s Central Valley. It turns out the work will be done without Shimmick, who is involved […]

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