Tutor Perini is a large construction firm that is building many of the nation’s large transit infrastructure projects, including California High Speed Rail and the San Francisco Central Subway project. We have expressed concern about a disconnect between accounting profits and cash losses – a pattern that has continued since we highlighted it during the high speed […]
Author Archive | CARRD
California high speed rail: an exercise in constantly moving goalposts
The California High Speed Rail Authority has started construction in the Central Valley. How is it going? Our own analysis says it is 3 years late and at least 20% over the original budget. The Authority tells everyone that everything is coming in under bid. At first glance, this seems right. The contract bids are […]
Tutor Perini lost money on a cashflow basis in 2015, again
Tutor Perini released their earnings today. As previously announced in January, they were much, much lower than previously forecast. Why should people interested in California High Speed Rail care? Tutor Perini won the contract for the first 29 miles of civil construction for the California High Speed Rail Authority. They almost didn’t win the contract. […]
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 […]
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 […]
New California High Speed Rail Authority report released: will key federal funding be forfeited?
California High Speed Rail report shows delays and real challenges meeting federal deadlines for spending grant funds.
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 […]
Backup documents for the 2014 Biz Plan Capital Cost: Do they exist?
Yesterday, we sent a request to the CHSRA board for back up cost documents for the published 2014 Business Plan capital cost estimate. Last summer, we were told they did not exist. Cost estimates for large transportation infrastructure projects are produced in a standard way. The engineers use a standard list of categories (track, utilities […]
Land purchases for initial construction way behind schedule
By CARRD on February 10, 2014 in Board Meeting, Business Plan, CHSRA, Fresno, Fresno – Bakersfield, Merced – Fresno, Statewide, Uncategorized
The contract signed with the design- build construction team led by Tutor Perini in August had a detailed list of properties that the CHSRA would have to buy and the date each parcel would be available to the contractor. The most recent report on January 16th notes that there are significant delays.How far behind is […]
What invoices are the FRA hiding?
At today’s Congressional hearing, Congressman Jeff Denham accused the FRA of failing to provided promised invoices from the project. He asked what they could be hiding. One invoice they may not want to share is a payment to former DOT official Roy Kienitz. Remember this guy? http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/05/25/2402531/feds-unlikely-to-budge-on-valley.html http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/26/local/la-me-high-speed-rail-20110526 CARRD received invoices through a Public Records […]