USA: California High Speed Rail Authority has selected the California Rail Builders special purpose vehicle of Ferrovial Agroman US Corp, Euroestudios and Othon for the Construction Package 4 design-build contract, which covers a 35 km section of the planned route through the Central Valley from 1·6 km north of the Tulare/Kern County line to Poplar Avenue north of Bakersfield.
This includes at-grade, retained fill and elevated sections of the alignment, relocating 6·4 km of BNSF tracks, construction of waterway and wildlife crossings, and road reconstruction, relocation and closures.
The request for qualifications was issued in November 2014. Five proposals were received and evaluated for technical merit (30%) and price (70%) by CHSRA and a representative from the City of Wasco. Announcing the preferred bidder on January 4, CHSRA said the selected bid of $347·6m was lower than its estimate of between $400m to $500m.
The contract will include 30% small business participation and a community benefits agreement designed to target disadvantaged workers for jobs and training opportunities.
