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California High-Speed Rail Authority names new chief executive
Parsons Brinkerhoff is not the builder that California HSR needs. it is the same outfit that engineered, ie over-engineered the Chinese HSR with vast amounts of un-neccessary and unsafe bridge and tunnel work, much to the contractors benefit and to catastrophic bridge collapse for the operator.
While living in Los Angeles from 1986-92, Parsons Brinkeroff caused a lot of controversy in the construction of the Metrorail Red Line. They are the same contractor that also worked on the infamous “big dig” highway tunnel in Boston.
Also, if California is going to get it right, they need to close the gap between Los Angeles and Bakersfield first (no exceptions) and allow Amtrak to operate the San Joaquin trains on the new section on an interim basis until the full project is complete. Electrification of the Caltrain corridor on the northern end of the line also makes sense at this time as well. This will allow time to settle out differences over the routing beyond San Jose to the Central Valley.Anyhting else done first is bound to be a lost cause for this important project for not only California’s, but our nation’s future as well, if we are truly going to have world-class transportation network for the 21st Century and beyond.