Top candidate named for Californian bullet train project
17 April 2013The California High-Speed Rail Authority has named the top candidate for the first part of the 500 miles (805km) high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The top candidate to build the 29 miles (47km) of California's bullet train in the Central Valley bid just under USD 1bn, below the state estimate of the cost, project officials announced.
The authority said Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons, a joint venture of US firms, submitted a bid of some USD 985M and was ranked first out of five competitors. The team offered the apparent best value based on price and technical proposals, evaluators stated.
The five teams submitted their proposals in January, which were evaluated by a panel of state officials.
Rail officials had estimated the cost of the initial section between Madera and Fresno at USD 1.2bn to USD 1.8bn. Construction is expedted to begin by July.
The high-speed rail board is expected to award the contract for the first section in the coming weeks.
The train line will carry some trains at speeds faster than 200mph (322mpk). It is now estimated to cost at least USD 68bn, the fourth revision over the years.
