Posted on 10/24/2015 6:57:47 PM PDT by BAW
he monumental task of building California's bullet train will require punching 36 miles of tunnels through the geologically complex mountains north of Los Angeles.
Crews will have to cross the tectonic boundary that separates the North American and Pacific plates, boring through a jumble of fractured rock formations and a maze of earthquake faults, some of which are not mapped.
It will be the most ambitious tunneling project in the nation's history.
State officials say the tunnels will be finished by 2022 — along with 300 miles of track, dozens of bridges or viaducts, high-voltage electrical systems, a maintenance plant and as many as six stations. Doing so will meet a commitment to begin carrying passengers between Burbank and Merced in the first phase of the $68-billion high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
However, a Times analysis of project documents, as well as interviews with scientists, engineers and construction experts, indicates that the deadline and budget targets will almost certainly be missed — and that the state has underestimated the challenges ahead, particularly completing the tunneling on time.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It will overrun costs by a factor of five, minimum.
Of course there will be overruns.
A mere 1% overrun is $680,000,000 ... that’s quite the incentive to go over a little, many times.
The only bullet a California pol gets morning wood over.
What could go wrong?
Derogatory comments at site.
As I recall, the final cost of Boston’s “Big Dig” was about 10 times what it was originally estimated - $20 billion vs. $2 billion.
Is there any reason to think California’s bullet-train will be any different (aside from the fact that CA doesn’t have a chance-in-hell of coming up with a half-trillion dollars)?
In other news, water is wet.
With more particulate pollution from one project than all others combined.
Oooooh. Can’t wait to get to beautiful downtown Burbank.
Of course it is. It’s only purpose is to shuttle money from the taxpayers to multinational corporations and labor unions.
Because its a scam like the rest
I think mullet train would suffice...
The whole boondoggle smells....like fish.
Every sane persn knows this is a boondoggle makework fustercluck.
Just who are the morons pushing this? Insane/LIBs, I guess. It is easy to waste OPM (other peoples’s money). Crooks...idiots.
Welcome to CA, we’re just swimming in Money, no really. LOL
Instead of building more reservoirs, pumping stations, water pipelines, desalination plants, prisons, roads, etc., the Stalinists in Sacramento intend to spend 100s of billions on a worthless train that runs between the high desert and Las Vegas. Doesn’t go anywhere near Los Angeles. Bribes, kickbacks, payoffs, and all manner of criminal acts are at play.
We used to do big things like Hoover Dam. The world’s biggest tunneling project sounds pretty cool. I don’t care about the train, but I like the tunnel.
This train will go SF to LA. Not Victorville.
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