(KMJ) – The state is again pushing back the deadline and raising the cost for its high-speed rail project.
This time it is asking the Biden administration for a one-year extension on completing construction on a section of track in the Central Valley.
Brian Kelly, the project’s chief executive officer, detailed delays and cost changes to the project in a letter released Friday alongside the project’s updated business plan. He will discuss it Tuesday at a meeting of the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s board of directors.
The state now expects to complete construction on a 119-mile segment of track from Bakersfield to Madera in the Central Valley by 2023. The budget for that segment of track is expected to jump from $12.4 to $13.8 billion, Kelly wrote.
The business plan, a guiding document for the project released every two years, was set to be approved last year but delayed due to the pandemic; it is now expected to be approved in April.
