Posted on 09/08/2020 12:37:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Contractors for the rail authority are filing massive change orders and delay claims... Additional land is also needed, adding to costs.
At the same time, the bullet train’s funding has taken several big hits. California’s cap-and-trade greenhouse gas auction system has provided about $3 billion to the rail project since 2015 and is counted on to provide at least $500 million annually until 2030.
But as a result of COVID-19’s economic impacts, the last two auctions shorted the project by $140 million...
The Trump administration last year terminated a $929-million grant, which is in legal dispute. But the money is still counted in the project budget.
[I]ncreased costs and decreased revenues are saddling Newsom’s plan with a potential fiscal hole of more than $1 billion. At the same time, some valley property owners are growing increasingly frustrated, having waited for years to be compensated for their land and endured disruptions caused by construction.
The rail authority agreed in November 2019 to pay $134 million for causing delays to a construction team led by Spanish firm Dragados. The claim was disclosed in rail authority documents but has not been previously reported.
In June, Tutor Perini, the firm leading construction in the Fresno County area, was paid more than $400 million for delays and construction changes.
In addition, Tutor has a pending demand for an additional $500 million...
Tutor’s original contract was for $1.02 billion, but has increased to a current value of $2.2 billion, not including the pending claim...
The claims for both Dragados and Tutor Perini relate largely to acquiring land. The project was supposed to be “shovel ready” in 2009 when the Obama administration issued a $2.2-billion federal grant from the Great Recession stimulus program, but in fact the state did not own a single square foot of property.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
We already killed this.
Does it not know it’s dead?
I guess we’ll have to kill it again.
A completely corrupt boondoggle.
The democrats got their money.
“additional land” is, imo, the key phrase in all this. This stupid train has been in the works for decades. All the land barons have made their moves long ago. Now, changes afoot - so re-route the train to make sure the ‘right’ land speculators are getting their fair share of the gravy ‘train’.
The giant DEMOCRAT boondoggle or how to spend untold amounts of money you are nowhere near having.
DEMOCRATS. DEMOCRATS. DEMOCRATS. Disaster in so many forms.
At one time condemning agencies in California obtained orders of possession ex parte at the outset of litigation. This enabled them to certify the acquisitions and the work could proceed.
After the “Kelo” decision, Democrat legislators in Sacramento saw an opportunity to make the eminent domain process even more lucrative for their lawyer friends and construction company “constituents.” Laws were changed to make pre-judgment possession much more difficult (if not impossible) thereby giving the defense lawyers more leverage to gouge the taxpayers paying for the project in exorbitant settlements.
On the back end, contractors (who have made an art form of submitting deceptive bids) are, as shown in the article, enriching themselves with so-called “change order” and “delay” claims.
A new force is upon us now. The high speed internet has reduced the need for transportation of people. Passenger rail is needed even less than before. Especially high speed passenger rail.
Anyone who expected this thing to be real and be anything other than a totally corrupt white elephant, please put your hands up.
Hello? Anyone?
Tutor Perini
DiFi’s Hubby is eyeballs deep in this abomination.
Follow the ‘monets’..
I think I read a nearly exact same article, from TEN years ago..
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