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Friday, February 10, 2012
Prop. 1B money sought for tracks
by Suzanne Hurt, published on December 5, 2009 at 9:11 PM
Storyline: Railyards
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The city of Sacramento is about to ask the state of California to make good on its promise to award at least $20 million for railroad track relocation so work can start by May.
Unable to sell as many bonds as expected, the state has not disbursed $20 million in trade corridor funds that was awarded last year under state Proposition 1B. Next week, the city will ask the California Transportation Commission to borrow $25 million against the bond money, said Linda Tucker, spokesperson for the city's Department of Transportation.
"We've got to get this going," she said Friday, when the city announced it had met a Dec. 1 deadline for another $20 million in federal stimulus funding.
The city already has gathered $15 million from federal, state and local sources. The state money is needed to fully fund the $60 million track relocation, which is the first phase of building the regional transportation center next to the Sacramento Valley Station downtown.
The city met the deadline by submitting construction authorizations for the final design of phase 1 of the transportation center, and by submitting easements and permits for utility relocation to the California Department of Transportation.
“Last March, we learned the biggest chunk of stimulus money in Sacramento would be going to the Railyards if the project could be ready for construction in 9 months," Mayor Kevin Johnson said in a statement.
"With that looming deadline, city staff have been scrambling to work with multiple federal, state and local agencies, rail operators and utility companies to gain federal environmental clearance and secure project approvals and have everything turned in by Tuesday, Dec. 1," he said. "I am pleased to say, yes, we made it!”
Despite that, construction has been delayed again. The work was targeted to start this fall, then delayed to March. Now, construction has been pushed back to May.
The city delayed the start because of the project's complexity. The extra time will give contractors longer to submit a bid and allow the city more time to award the work, Tucker said.
"It has to meet a lot of criteria to be eligible for funds coming from a myriad of sources," she said.
The city applied for $6 million more for Phase 1 in August but did not win it, Tucker said.
The new tracks are now expected to begin operating in mid-2012.
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Suzanne can you tell me who i can contact to get some information on this project? Why we need 60 million more for this station? Sounds more like a terribly costly unneeded appropriation
when all of our resources should be going to getting businesses that make things for others around the world as china and India, Mexico and other countries do for us. Those companies use to be here and we use to have an economy that was flourishing and prospering. Lets bring the business back to America which creates the jobs that then our citizens have money to spend on things like more 60 million dollar choo choo's? And why is it that Union Pacific isn't footing this bill?
I contacted Union Pacific in Chicago a few years back on when they were going to put a coat of paint on the I street bridge and was rebuffed as something that was not a priority that the bridge was structural sound and that was that. We share that bridge with the California Dept of Transportation, but got nowhere there as well. They passed the buck for me to talk to Union Pacific.
The track relocation is more complex than just moving some track--it also includes an entirely new set of longer station shelters, more tracks for more trains, a pedestrian underpass for passengers and a second underpass for baggage and service vehicles, planned space for eventual high-speed rail, a direct rail connection between Old Sacramento and the Shops area (currently they have to drop a piece of panel track across the UP mainline to move things in and out of Old Sac) and provision for the two bridges Thomas Enterprises will build over the tracks at 5th and 6th Streets. It also includes fences to keep passengers off the freight tracks, and I think it might include a pedestrian walkway over the tracks too--or that might be in a later phase.
The tracks at the station affect more than just passengers at the depot--that line is the main artery for freight in this part of the country, a role it has played for 140 years. Currently, freight trains have to slow down dramatically to make it around the tight curve at 6th and H Street. This relocation will bring the tracks closer to their old alignment from the 1920s, and allow freight trains to move faster--but without endangering Amtrak passengers.
Don't you think a $60 million structural improvement project might help bring a few jobs here? It's not like we can send the job to China and they can send us the track relocation in shippnig containers. It also improves shipping speeds of the American heavy freight system, of which Union Pacific is a part, and expands the capacity of our passenger depot, which is already one of the busiest in the country.
And yeah, even if the I Street bridge is a little rusty, it is structurally sound.
I do not have the specifics. I do know that among our economic problems lie in outsourcing American business to foreign entities and as such loss of jobs. This is being done daily. A start would be to take the money and survey those businesses on the why they left or downsized and form a coalition to fix the problem to get them back.