Work underway on disputed rail overpasses

-April 1,2019-

No clearer proof that Kings County and the California High Speed Rail Authority are serious about settling their differences than the burst of construction activity under way now at multiple overpasses key to the project in the county.

Kings County Supervisor Doug Verboon made news a few weeks ago when he said the Authority and Kings County were in discussions that could settle their bitter and lengthy legal dispute.”It’s in the hands of lawyers now” he reported in late February.

Now after a decade of controversy, it is clear, it has moved into the hands of the engineers.

For the past year Kings County has challenged the CHSRA design plans for Kent and Kansas Ave overpasses, south of Hanford, claiming they were unsafe and setting in motion extended legal hearings in front of the California Public Utilities Commission. This legal tangle has been much lower profile than the court battles in Sacramento that involve the same parties in superior court, but no less impactful.

Kings County has held up the construction process at not just these two overpasses that had been scheduled to be completed by last year, but had filed protests in front of the CPUC on no less than 11 proposed overpasses and underpasses in Kings County in the process.That covers most of the 65 mile segment called CP2/3.

Holding up construction activity has set back timetables for the project already criticized widely in the public for being behind schedule and over budget, if for nothing else but on lawyer fees. The delays have had a profound impact in an ebbing of political support for the project signaled by California’s new governor a few months ago.

In February there was a break in the impasse as the administrative judge at the CPUC heard agreement from both sides to stay the proceedings regards the issue of the grade-separated crossings that vehicles would be taking over the high-speed rail tracks.

A motion published Feb 14 said “CHSRA and the County hereby move the Commission to stay the proceedings and to remove the evidentiary hearings from the calendar.”

“First, CHSRA and the County are currently engaged in ongoing settlement discussions that, if successful, will result in the County withdrawing its opposition to the applications. These settlement discussions will likely extend beyond the dates scheduled for the evidentiary hearings that are currently set for March 4–6, 2019. Therefore, a stay of the proceedings while CHSRA and the County continue their settlement discussions is necessary so as not to expend the Commission’s resources unnecessarily.”

How about CHSRA resources?

Now at multiple overpass sites along the CP2/3 segment in Kings County there is construction activity for all to see – at Kent, Kansas and Excelsior Avenues, between 7th and Highway 43.

Also construction has begun on two new overcrossings at Flint Avenue and at Fargo Avenue east of SR-43 just outside of Hanford. As of now, about 49 trucks per hour are hauling approximately 56,000 cubic yards of earth per day to build up the embankments here says the April HSR construction update.

There is also notice that the underlying Superior Court lawsuits  going back 5 years, are part of a settlement package. The court agreed to not hold an evidentiary hearing that had been set for April 5, that would have heard the 2014 lawsuit by Kings County and its allies because the parties “are actively engaged in settlement discussions.”

Governor Newsome says he wants to complete the Central Valley segment but has not made it clear just how trains will reach LA or SF. In the past few days California sold another $600 million in bonds to help pay for the high-speed rail project, money approved back in 2008. Kings County have been trying to block the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s use of Proposition 1A bond funds for the project losing several cases, one last November, but further delaying the process.

If there is a settlement with its number one foe, little ol’Kings County – Governor Newsome just might want to come to Hanford to sit with the locals and work to bury the hatchet further.