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Cost overruns hit California bullet train again amid a new financial crunch
LA Times ^ | OCT. 8, 2021 5 AM PT | RALPH VARTABEDIAN

Posted on 10/08/2021 2:27:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin

The California bullet train is facing at least another billion dollars of proposed cost increases from its contractors...

The state’s High-Speed Rail Authority has mostly approved such increases in the past, and if it does so again, contractors could proceed with one of the biggest price escalations since bullet train construction began in the San Joaquin Valley.

The state has budgeted $22.8 billion to build a partial segment from Bakersfield to Merced. Originally, construction of the Los Angeles to San Francisco system was pegged at $33 billion. But the surging costs will probably force the state to dig deeper into its future funding just to complete that 171-mile leg in the valley.

The teams building bridges, viaducts, trenches and overpasses in the valley have submitted dozens of new claims for delays and design changes, asserting they are the authority’s fault, according to several of the project’s technical and business officials and internal documents reviewed by The Times. The officials asked to remain nameless because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The costs are being driven by changes in designs submitted in the original contracts, delays in moving underground utilities and long-standing problems buying all of the land along the right of way.

Rail authority Chief Executive Brian Kelly declined to discuss the size of the cost increases, but said they are growing due to erroneous past decisions.

The board has limited ability to intervene. Board members are not provided with proposed change orders or their proposed amounts before the staff approves them, according to two former board members.

Efforts to strengthen outside control of the project have also faltered. In 2016, then Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed bipartisan legislation to strengthen oversight.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bullettrain; california; changeorders; cost; highspeedrail; newsom; overruns
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To: patriot torch

Ayne Rand is laughing somewhere.


21 posted on 10/08/2021 3:19:10 PM PDT by Basket_of_Deplorables (Convention Of States is our only hope now! Desantis 2024!!!)
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To: BobL
$22 billion for a bull yet train from Bakersfield to Merced which is 163 miles is $135 million per mile!
22 posted on 10/08/2021 3:24:54 PM PDT by WMarshal ("Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.")
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To: WMarshal

“is $135 million per mile!”

A new freeway in the middle of nowhere is about $15M per mile. Double it due to the much higher weight of the (non-existent) trains, and it’s $30M per mile.

Add a lane to I-5, and it costs about $5M per mile (the vast majority of road bridges there can easily handle 3 lanes, if not 5 lanes, and trust me, I’ve driven it probably 50 times).

But let’s be real...the LAST THING they want are functional freeways.


23 posted on 10/08/2021 3:35:01 PM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: BenLurkin

Are planes flying from Bakersfield to Merced?
AOC wants to replace all airplanes with trains.
And we have only 9 years to go!
We better speed up!


24 posted on 10/08/2021 3:53:07 PM PDT by AZJeep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0AHGreco RomNQkryIIs)
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To: BenLurkin

Seriously, this boondoggle is a great illustration of where the government regulations got us.
The worst problem is not the construction itself, but all the land purchases, lawsuits and environmental regulation. It is almost impossible to build anything anymore, especially in California.
Even if the life on Earth depended on it.


25 posted on 10/08/2021 4:07:28 PM PDT by AZJeep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0AHGreco RomNQkryIIs)
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To: BenLurkin

Every time I see one of these postings about California’s LA to SF (original concept), I praise Governor (now US Senator) Rick Scott of Florida. Obama ‘gifted’ then GOP Gov. Charlie Crist (Jeb’s protege) with the Tampa-Orlando I-4 HSR (High-Speed Rail). Charlie near wet himself with joy!

Rick Scott came into office and cancelled the whole project a year later. Everybody who was tasting the money SCREAMED but his chop stuck! Obama said that he would give Florida’s grant to California! Boy, did that make a real difference! (Yes, this is sarcasm!)

FYI: GOP Charlie morphed into Independent and then to ‘D’im and is my outgoing US Rep as he tries to unseat Ron DeSantis as Florida Governor. What a resume that boy has got! (Why yes, this is more sarcasm! How nice of you to notice!)


26 posted on 10/08/2021 4:15:41 PM PDT by SES1066 (Ask not what the LEFT can do for you, rather ask what the LEFT is doing to YOU!)
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To: monkeyshine
Bakersfield to Merced? It makes absolutely no sense at all.

It does if a Citizens Initiative to Amend the Constitution by MOVING the State Capitol to Bakersfield and then MANDATE ALL PUBLIC SERVANTS use Mass Transit to and from thier respective work place
27 posted on 10/08/2021 4:26:52 PM PDT by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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To: AZJeep

I’m waiting to se the solar powered trains that are supposed to run to Alaska and Hawaii as part of the eviro tantrum.


28 posted on 10/08/2021 4:30:30 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (`)
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To: BenLurkin

Shocked! I am absolutely shocked!


29 posted on 10/08/2021 4:31:56 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“I believe the best social program is a job” ~ Ronald Reagan)
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To: BenLurkin

California is not the least bit worried. They know Mitch McConnell and his merry bunch of RINO’s will soon send them more than enough more to waste on this project.


30 posted on 10/08/2021 4:38:25 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: sit-rep

“””who the hell would even think about building a bullet train in the most unstable region of the country?? first thoughts of mine when they just started publicly pondering the idea out there. GD train, zipping along at 250kpm+ and a 7.5 earthquake hits... you’re not gonna stop fast enough before some major destruction occurs!! how fkn stupid can you get!!???”””


The Japanese. If this boondoggle ever gets constructed, they better have some Japanese engineers building it.


31 posted on 10/08/2021 4:41:42 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: All

I guess if Jim ever needs to get to Merced in a hurry, he’ll have this option by the time the Chinese troops are here.

Thinking he might have different plans though.


32 posted on 10/08/2021 5:48:49 PM PDT by Peter ODonnell (a cloud has fallen over the lands of the free )
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To: sit-rep

who the hell would even think about building a bullet train in the most unstable region of the country?


Well to be fair, Japan is pretty unstable when it comes to earthquakes and they seemed to have figured out how to deal with them.

Of course there will be little demand or need for the Bakersfield/Merced stretch and who knows when they can figure out the more important Merced to S.F. and Bakersfield to L.A. bits. Thing is the Merced/Bakersfield was supposed to be the easy bit and it doesn’t look like they can get it done.

If it ever gets finished, I have no doubt that the state will somehow move to limit/restrict/ban the airplane competition, likely in the name of the environment.


33 posted on 10/08/2021 6:24:08 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: BenLurkin

It goes nearly a third as fast as a plane. 19th century solutions to 21st century issues.


34 posted on 10/08/2021 6:47:30 PM PDT by bray (Our patience is wearing thin Joe)
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To: BenLurkin

Pity. It was going so well.


35 posted on 10/08/2021 6:59:46 PM PDT by lurk ( )
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To: BenLurkin

Bull$#!t Train.


36 posted on 10/08/2021 9:08:56 PM PDT by rfp1234 (Comitia asinorum et rhinocerum delenda sunt.)
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To: eyeamok

That bus ride in winter fog over Tehachapi Pass will be loads of fun/S


37 posted on 10/08/2021 9:10:53 PM PDT by rfp1234 (Comitia asinorum et rhinocerum delenda sunt.)
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To: Organic Panic

Well yeah, that and it’s also just a 2 1/2 hour drive. The money would have been much better spent on 99, the driving route from Bakersfield to Merced, which is in horrible condition. They could have turned it into a nice freeway and had money left over.


38 posted on 10/09/2021 7:15:51 AM PDT by sheana
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