High-speed rail board set to vote on federal money
BY JOHN COX, Californian staff writer jcox@bakersfield.com
Board members of the California High-Speed Rail Authority are scheduled to vote Monday on whether to modify their plans for the project's first leg, located entirely in the Central Valley, to accommodate additional federal money awarded recently.
Authority staff have recommended accepting the $616 million in economic stimulus money turned down by Ohio and Wisconsin, and use that sum to extend southward the Borden-to-Corcoran route approved by the board Dec. 2. The board is also expected to decide whether to ask for matching state bond money, which the U.S. Department of Transportation has requested.
It remains unclear just how far south the additional money would allow the first segment to reach. That's because a key environmental review -- a draft of which is scheduled to be released next month -- will influence where the route can run.
Maps and written materials released by the rail authority earlier this week suggest that, under the best-case scenario, the new money could allow the first leg to reach as far south as Wasco -- assuming the least expensive option is permitted by the environmental review. Under the most expensive scenario, the initial segment would end somewhere west of Earlimart, north of Kern County.
Rail authority spokeswoman Rachel Wall said staff won't have a final answer on where the segment's southern terminus would be until the environmental review goes through the public review process. That process could take until late 2011.
"I don't think it's wise to pin down an exact point right now," she said Friday.
Kern County administrative analyst Teresa Hitchcock agreed, saying the authority has a lot of engineering to do before it can say with any certainty how far south the first segment would run. But she said Kern County officials watching the process are encouraged.
"Of course we're happy that (the rail authority) is building south, and as more funding comes along they would complete that leg into Bakersfield, so that certainly would make a more useable segment," Hitchcock said.
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