With plans to acquire more than a thousand parcels, many in Kings and Tulare Counties, along the proposed route for the California High Speed Rail system, the agency board last week picked a local firm to head up one team of surveyors.
The board awarded a right-of-way engineering and survey support contract to five firms including a Visalia-based company.
Quad Knopf Inc of Visalia was awarded a $3.2 million contract to carry out the work from Fresno to Shafter over the next four years. The award was announced at the CHSRA board meeting February 11.
Helping to make the Quad Knopf application tops of all five winners was that “all the firms on the Quad Knopf team are local to the project, and all are Certified Small Businesses” says president Mike Knopf.
In their application the company noted that “Quad Knopf is a local firm with a 40-year history of providing surveying and engineering services throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Over the years We have developed working relationships with other local surveying firms whose leadership and technical work we know and trust. To better serve the needs of this assignment, we have combined the experience and capacities of three of these companies, all of which are located close to the first phase of the California High-Speed Rail (HSR) project.”
Local firms serving on the Quad Knopf team include some familiar names. They include Lane Engineers,Tulare (surveyors)
Neil Zerlang ,Visalia, (surveyors),Bedrock Engineering, Madera/Fresno (surveyors),Vanguard Construction Services, Fresno (Document control, records and document management) and Alert-O-Lite, Fresno (traffic control).
Local familiarity may have been a strong point as the Authority seeks to smooth the per-construction effort here with the Quad Knopf application pointing out how they know the lay of the land in Kings and Tulare counties where this work will be carried out.
“Our local experts have been using these records for decades, making them highly qualified as survey researchers.”
Merger & Move Told
Additionally, Quad Knopf is announcing this week that it has merged with a Merced-based company Fremming, Parson and Pecchenino, a move “that promises to enhance the capabilities of both firms.The merged firms have approximately 100 employees.”
Quad Knopf made the news here recently when they announced they would move to their new corporate headquarters to property they bought and are remodeling at 901 E Main St in Visalia.The company will be moving into their new 12,000 sf location in coming weeks.
What’s Next?
Quad Knopf and other survey teams could begin their work as soon as the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the 110 mile Fresno to Bakersfield to segment is finalized or certified, something that could take place as soon as next month say sources.
The controversial project, the largest public works effort in California history, is still mired in a legal tangle over Prop 1A state bond funding questions. That process could see some clarity with a pending appeal court ruling likely in March. On Friday the Third District Court of Appeal granted a request by Governor Brown to stay Judge Michael Kenny’s ruling that blocks the release of more bond funds while the court hears the governor’s appeal.