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The California High-Speed Rail Authority board Tuesday awarded a three-year contract valued at $444.3 million for design and construction of the third segment of the rail line in the San Joaquin Valley.

Tuesday’s 6-0 vote by the rail agency’s directors authorizes CEO Jeff Morales to negotiate and finalize a contract with California Rail Builders for a 22-mile stretch of the bullet-train route from the Tulare-Kern county line to Poplar Avenue in Shafter, northwest of Bakersfield. California Rail Builders submitted the lowest-cost bid among four proposals by firms competing for the job.



California Rail Builders is led by Ferrovial Agroman US Corp., an American subsidiary of Spain’s Ferrovial S.A., and augmented by Eurostudios, a Spanish engineering company, and Othon Inc., a Houston engineering and environmental consulting firm. Ferrovial has extensive experience in infrastructure construction in the United States and around the world, including work on high-speed rail lines in Spain, Turkey, Algeria and Columbia.

The California Rail Builders/Ferrovial Agroman bid came in at $347.5 million, well below engineers’ estimates of $400 million to $500 million. The rest of the contract value comes from an estimated $107 million to cover the costs of protecting or relocating utilities owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Co., AT&T and Level 3 Communications.

The contract covers construction of the route up to the railbed in both at-grade and elevated areas, as well as relocating four miles of existing freight tracks, crossings for waterways and wildlife, and some road overpasses to carry traffic over the new line.

Once a contract is executed, it will extend work being done by construction teams that have contracts for nearly 100 miles of rail line in the San Joaquin Valley, stretching from Avenue 17 northeast of Madera to the Tulare-Kern county line.




The first contract, for just under $1 billion, was awarded in mid-2013 to Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons for a 29-mile segment from Madera to the south edge of Fresno. The second contract, for about $1.4 billion, was awarded a year ago to Dragados/Flatiron, a joint venture of two construction firms, and covers about 65 miles from American Avenue south of Fresno to the Tulare-Kern county line.

Construction will start later this year on the second contract south of Fresno. Work is under way on the Fresno-Madera segment, but is running well behind the original schedule. Scott Jarvis, the rail authority’s chief engineer, said delays in buying or acquiring the land needed for the railroad right of way has meant slow progress.



http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/high-speed-rail/article54370025.html