The California bullet train authority is moving ahead with an aggressive plan to issue its biggest contract in history, steering into sharp criticism by federal regulators and even the state-appointed peer review panel that it is overreaching.
The agency took a key step last week toward issuing a 30-year-long contract to install track, set up high-voltage electrical lines, create a digital signaling system, build a heavy maintenance train garage and obligate future maintenance of the equipment and track.
The day after the letter arrived, the California High-Speed Rail Authority voted to take the next major step in that contract process, asking for bids from three international teams that could result in an award in 2020 and a notice to begin the work by September.and redirect funds to high-speed rail project sections in Southern California and the Bay Area.
Moreover, federal officials have warned that they intend to claw back an additional $2.5 billion that has been spent, because the state violated the agreement. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao called the project a “classic bait and switch” after Gov. Gavin Newsom curtailed the project earlier this year.
The work is far behind schedule, and only a third of all the bridges, viaducts and other structures have even started construction. The work was originally supposed to have been completed by 2017 at a cost of $6 billion. Now the cost is set at $10.6 billion.
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