California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR), the nation’s first high-speed rail project and largest in-process infrastructure program, will zip passengers along a nearly 500-mile route between San Francisco and Los Angeles at speeds up to 220 miles per hour. Electrified trains will cover the distance in fewer than three hours, cutting in half the six-plus hours it now takes to drive between the two cities.

The system’s backbone is the 119-mile initial operating section now under construction. Among the section’s three design-build construction packages is Construction Package 4 (CP4), a 22-mile segment that is critical to the line’s overall success. CP4 provides crucial rail guideway infrastructure that prepares for the program’s next steps: track and systems installation. Partnering with the project owner, California High-Speed Rail Authority, HNTB serves as construction manager.

“We achieved a construction first for high-speed rail in California with the completion of Construction Package 4. The HNTB team was instrumental in working with the Authority to achieve this milestone,” said Daniel Teran, senior contract manager, California High-Speed Rail Authority.

Transformational infrastructure

CAHSR represents a transformational and generational shift that will deliver considerable regional and statewide benefits, resolving congestion in communities, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing quality of life.

While the California High-Speed Rail Authority is working to secure funding for delivery of the entire CAHSR system, the project already has received state and federal funding for the work underway, and the Federal Railroad Administration announced in December 2023 that it would award $3 billion more for continuation of CAHSR design and construction.

The project also enjoys public support. A 2022 University of California Berkeley/Los Angeles Times survey found that the majority of California’s registered voters favored continuing the CAHSR project.

“There has been a perception that high-speed rail couldn’t be built in the United States,” said Alberto King, HNTB project executive. “But, through CAHSR, we are solving the issues that have previously stood in the way. HNTB is working collaboratively with the California High-Speed Rail Authority to address every challenge we encounter. We have not hesitated to bring the best available rail staff in the country to advise the Authority about the most effective ways to deliver the project.”

“HNTB is deeply passionate about the mission of high-speed rail in California,” said Brian Stover, HNTB project manager. “Bringing high-speed rail to the United States offers new options for accessible mobility, allowing people to travel between cities comfortably, reliably and safely. We’re taking what has been done in other parts of the world and making it better.”

Path through the Central Valley

The CAHSR line will traverse California’s Central Valley, the largest agricultural center in the country and home to nearly 7 million people.

“Although some communities in the Central Valley are the fastest growing in California, the region’s economy has lagged behind the rest of the state. Its communities have experienced historical underinvestment and have been geographically separated from the coastal cities,” King said. “By choosing to take high-speed rail through the Central Valley, the California High-Speed Rail Authority will not only deliver economic benefits to the communities along the route but will connect them to the rest of the state.”

The CAHSR line will make it easier for Central Valley residents to access the area’s more affordable housing and still commute to work in Los Angeles, the Bay Area or other job centers.

To ensure they weren’t contributing to the Central Valley Basin’s clean-air challenges, the Authority set a project goal of net-zero greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant emissions. During construction, all contractors must use trucks and equipment retrofitted to achieve comparable standards throughout the project. High-speed rail itself will monumentally reduce carbon emissions in the area by removing a significant number of cars and trucks from Central Valley roadways.