It’s a no-brainer now for US taxpayers and citizens to realize that the transportation infrastructure is in a bad shape and badly needs improvement.
Economists argue that transportation infrastructure projects will not only create short-term jobs but will improve the state economy.
New transportation system means easier for commuters and business people to travel across states. In former president Obama’s words, “There’s never been a better time to build.”
Pursuant to the president’s statement, one of America’s largest and most ambitious transportation infrastructure, a high-speed rail line that would connect San Francisco and Los Angeles commenced. The groundbreaking ceremony of this ambitious project happened in the modest town of Fresno, California on 6 January 2015.
This 220-mile-an-hour train will take commuters to and fro the two metropolises in half the time it takes to drive by car.
Commuters will have to wait for more or less ten years because there is a need for more money to complete the built. Yet the fact that this bullet train has even started construction is a miracle in itself.
The budget of $68 billion for this built has overcome gigantic challenges such as lawsuits, conservative complaints, and blockages by environmentalists. Americans have been longing for cutting-edge rail transport technology. This could be the innovative infrastructure they needed.
This high-speed train project started in 2008 with an initial $9.95 billion to spend on it. In 2009, Obama’s stimulus package gave another $3.5 billion. In 2012, officials expect to start laying steel on its first segment from Fresno to Madera, a 29-mile span.
The area selected to start building the rail is based on costs. It is cheaper to build in the Central Valley than in the Bay area or Los Angeles basin. So shovels hit the soils of Central Valley first.
A surge of lawsuits and high costs nearly halted the project. Farm-owners refuse rail route on their backyard forcing relocation on more expensive areas. Environmentalists have their issues against the project and GOP house prevented new federal money to be used on this project.
On top of this, Conservative groups sued the California High-Speed Rail Authority on grounds that their business plan does not have the funding blueprint to justify the project’s very high costs, which makes it illegal. The judged ruled in favour of the Conservative groups and stopped the sale of bonds.
Amazingly state officials prevailed against these hurdles. On appeal by state officials, the judge reversed his decision on bond sales. The federal panel also rejected the environmentalists’ objections. Other lawsuits against routing were settled.
Governor Jerry Brown, a firm supporter of this project ever since was able to obtain a stable revenue source. He proposed a 25 per cent share from the annual revenue of California’s cap-and-trade program, a program that collects offset payments of carbon emitters. Brown plans to use the share to fund the high-speed rail project.
Along with the construction of the high-speed rail project will be the updating of infrastructure asset management plans of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Avoiding USA’s past infrastructure neglect, California will implement planned maintenance and renewal.
The infrastructure management authorities should be able to establish well in their asset management plan such factors as future demand, risk management and sustainability.
Ambitious infrastructure projects are legacies of effective governance through leaders who could visualize into the future and work out their completion.
There’s no doubt this high-speed rail will do its job as a very important US infrastructure.
PHOTO CREDIT: By California High-Speed Rail Authority – extracted from the pdt at http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/assets/0/81/214/05a9fb13-15de-4044-9f9b-c05cbb06dacb.pdf, Public Domain, Link