{"id":345863,"date":"2026-06-04T02:52:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345863\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T02:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:52:28","slug":"high-speed-rail-board-oks-3-5b-central-valley-track-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345863\/","title":{"rendered":"High-speed rail board OKs $3.5B Central Valley track contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than a decade of construction in the Central Valley, the California High-Speed Rail Authority could be fewer than six months from laying the system\u2019s first tracks.<\/p>\n

The rail authority\u2019s board on Monday awarded a track and systems construction contract of up to $3.5 billion to an operation between rail and engineering contractors Kiewit, Stacy Witbeck and Herzog. The joint venture is expected to do the track work between Merced and Bakersfield in various phases that will each require board approval.<\/p>\n

The board\u2019s new chair, Steve Kawa, described the award as a turning point for a project that has been slow to clear environmental rules, acquire the necessary right-of-way and build out infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday the conversation changes,\u201d he said during the meeting. \u201cTrack and system construction is the moment this project truly begins to become a railroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

California voters first approved $9.95 billion in bonds for a Los Angeles-to-San Francisco system initially projected to cost $45 billion. The rail authority today is focused on first completing a 171-mile Merced-to-Bakersfield route by 2033 for $34.76 billion on the low end.<\/p>\n

\"An An aerial view of the California High-Speed Rail Authority\u2019s Southern Railhead Facility. CA HSRA When will contractor start laying Central Valley tracks?<\/p>\n

The rail authority expects work to begin on the first 22 miles that are ready for tracks \u2014 a space between the Shafter area and the Tulare-Kern County line \u2014 by Nov. 30.<\/p>\n

That work is expected to be completed by June of next year, rail authority Chief of Construction Ed Fenn said during the meeting. From there, track work will advance north toward Fresno until it is complete on the initial 119 miles between Shafter and Madera County.<\/p>\n

In recent months, the rail authority started awarding contracts to manufacturers who will be shipping track and system materials \u2014 including overhead poles, rails, ballast and more \u2014 to the agency\u2019s 150-acre railhead yard near Wasco. From there, the materials will be moved north as needed.<\/p>\n

Rail board members concerned about single bidder for track contract<\/p>\n

Though the process for choosing the track construction contractor was competitive, only the joint venture that was chosen actually bid a price to the rail authority. The only other bidder was disqualified for failing to show it had at least one key personnel who was a professional engineer registered in this state.<\/p>\n

Board member Jeffrey Worthe said during the meeting he was concerned whether \u201clocking ourselves\u201d into a single bidder is a responsible use of taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

The contractor\u2019s work will be broken into nine packages, each requiring board approval. Fenn, the rail authority\u2019s construction chief, said this strategy allows the agency to \u201censure we have the proper pricing going forward for each package.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always have the opportunity to off ramp, but that\u2019s certainly not what we want to do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to trust that our partners are going to come to terms with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 3:00 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Erik Galicia<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea\u2019s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert. Erik\u2019s work is supported through the California Local News Fellowship program.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than a decade of construction in the Central Valley, the California High-Speed Rail Authority could be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-345863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}