Hi-Speed Rail Refines Route Over Mountains

If there were any serious objections to the proposed route of the California High-Speed Rail (HSR) track over the Tehachapi pass, the 45 people who attended the project community update July 20 in Tehachapi were pretty quiet about it.

The single question from the audience following the HSR Authority presentation related to fire safety along the electric rail line.

People got answers to their questions from a dozen project engineers and managers who fielded questions one-on-one in a relaxed atmosphere at the Tehachapi Area Association of Realtors meeting room. Interactive media displays enabled people to see exactly – to the linear foot – how close the proposed rail line would come to their property. Color-keyed maps (blue for elevated rail, green for surface, magenta for underground) and an aerial animation of the 78-mile Bakersfield-to-Palmdale segment provided visual data that would be hard to achieve with still photos and pages of statistics.

At the interactive map, Tehachapi residents James and Pam Welch and HSR engineer Rick Simon entered the address of the tree trimming company where James works in Lancaster. The building is on Sierra Highway and appears to be in the path of the HSR, which parallels the highway in that area. Should the HSR take the property, it will move the "displacee" to a new location. James Welch noted there is a large vacant lot nearby, and surmised that it could be a destination for the business.

Jeff Patterson of Mogul Energy owns and lives on 120 acres east of Tehachapi. He has been in the wind energy business for 34 years, and his property bristles with turbines. While HSR Authority planners have worked to minimize disturbance to wind and solar farms, according to the interactive map, the bullet train alignment runs through some of Patterson's turbines. Patterson and the Authority have some negotiating to do.

The interactive map shows that the HSR comes within half a mile of Tehachapi's new hospital (officially named Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley). From the northeast corner of hospital property, the distance is exactly 2,526.6 feet (a mile is 5280 feet). At the point closest to the hospital, the train will emerge from a mile-long tunnel and will continue ascending to the summit at 4,064 feet. The engineers say that the topography will shield the hospital visually from the train.

The interactive map shows that the HSR track will almost nick the corner of the Willow Springs Raceway as it drops down into Rosamond.

Community outreach

The High-Speed Rail Authority, battling uphill against cries of "boondoggle" and a ballooning budget for the 800-mile fast train project continues to march forward in a systematic, methodical way. The head of the spear is the public outreach in the form of community meetings that so far have served to engage the public, blunt criticism, absorb and utilize feedback and avoid surprises that could lead to public outcry. Early exposure of proposed routes farther south triggered a huge blowback from citizens of Santa Clarita and the San Fernando Valley, and the Authority subsequently approved new proposed alignments that would take the rail line underground through the Angeles National Forest from Palmdale to Burbank. Environmentalists are not sold on the idea of tunneling through the national forest, saying ground water and wildlife would be affected.

The Sacramento-based Authority has begun construction in the flat Central Valley segment from Merced to Fresno.

"There are 119 miles under construction contract now," Southern California Regional Project Director Michelle Boehm said. "There are seven active construction sites." Apparently she has encountered skepticism about the project, as she pointed out that the photos on the screen really were taken at the HSR construction sites and not gleaned from the internet.

The Tehachapi community meeting was one of four scheduled along the Burbank-to-Palmdale route to introduce the latest refinements of the proposed route. The first meeting was held at Edison on July 18 (in Spanish and English and presented as a live webcast); Lancaster was scheduled for July 21 and Rosamond on July 26.

According to the updated business plan, Boehm said, the Authority anticipates full operation of the High-Speed Rail from Anaheim to San Francisco by the year 2029. Segments of the 800-mile high-speed rail line, notably in the bookend urban areas, will come on line at various times prior to 2019.

The next step for the Bakersfield-to-Palmdale route is the comprehensive environmental study (Environmental Impact Report) which will require entry to private property.

An Authority flyer explains, "While many of these properties [on the route] are privately owned, the Authority's experts will still need to visit those properties to collect information and conduct the necessary studies. To gain access to privately held properties, the Authority issues a Permit to Enter (PTE) form requesting access to the property. Once the PTE is signed and returned, the Authority or its representatives will contact the property owner to arrange access."

Boehm said Tehachapi city planners have been a pleasure to work with.

"The visionary planning of the city staff provides a phenomenal base of knowledge to help us design and build a system appropriate for the Tehachapi community," she said.

Tehachapi City Manager Greg Garrett said that the city staff has spent many hours meeting with the HSR planners.

"They have been forthcoming and truthful with everything," he said. "We have an open dialog and good planning sessions."

Garrett said that before the July 20 community meeting, city and HSR staff went out, traced the entire route through Tehachapi and "kicked the dirt."

High-Speed Rail maps, information, documentation and animations are available online at http://www.hsr.ca.gov.