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Sunday, May 26, 2024

California's Central Valley Bullet Train Update -- May 26, 2024

Locator: 47181THECOMICPAGE.

  • tag: bullet train, Tulare Lakebed, Corcoran,

Updates:

Link here. May 5, 2024, so, it's a fairly recent update.

At the link, some great photos and narrative:

The California High Speed Rail Authority shared an update on the Fresno River Viaduct in Madera County last week, proudly saying it was one of the 'first completed high-speed rail structures.'
The tweet did not get the reaction officials were hoping for with Elon Musk and Dogecoin creator Billy Markus piling in to mock the project.
The Viaduct has taken nine years to build and has cost taxpayers $11 billion as part of the state's long-delayed, bullet-train plan attempting to link San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Commenting on photos showing the bridge stopping at only 1,600ft long with either end floating unconnected in the air, Markus tweeted: 'This is the most remarkable human achievement ever.'
Sharing the rail authority's tweet he added: '1600 feet of high speed rail after 9 years and 11 billion dollars it takes about 5 minutes to walk 1600 feet so a high speed rail for that is a really big deal.'
He added: 'Wow so impressive, can’t wait until year 2400 for this to finish for 700 quadrillion dollars.'
Musk then chimed in, adding a crying face emoji.
The high speed railway project has been beset by delays and setbacks. So far $11billion of taxpayer money has been sunk into the scheme which aims to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco. The figure includes work on controversial Fresno bridge and a section which runs from Bakersfield to Merced, which is about 80 miles from the Bay Area.
It will take an estimated $100billion more to finish the project and link San Francisco to Los Angeles with many calling for the project to be scrapped.

 The floating viaduct:

What's really cool about this: the disconnect between engineer thinking and banking CEO thinking:

  • engineers could / couldn't care less about the cost; it's the engineering feat that marvels
  • the banking CEO: are you kidding me? $11 billion for a bridge to nowhere.

See Wes Anderson's Asteroid City for more on this.

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Re-Posting

One of my better posts on the Bullet Train, California

Locator: 44699CA.

Locator: 44461BT. 

Updates

May 20, 2023: California to open relief valves to mitigate Lake Tulare flooding

The intertie functions like a gated alley connecting two much larger streets. On one side lies a stretch of the Kern River called the Buena Vista Channel, and on the other is the California Aqueduct, a simple name for a complex system of tunnels and pipelines that transports water from Northern California and the Sierra to the state's arid central and southern expanses.

Original Post

I don't know if folks remember this, but if you do, hold that thought. This was the huge Red River flood of Grand Forks back in 1997. Photo link here.

Fast forward.

Out in California, The Los Angeles Times reports on something similar facing Tulare, California, central valley, northwest of Los Angeles, northwest of Bakersfield. Tulare Lake is back. See also the blog of June 24, 2017.

This story may or may not be behind a paywall. I was able to access it without difficulty.

The flooding has only recently begun and is expected to last at least two more years, assuming I read the article correctly, which seems correct because the state is working on a plan to raise the existing earth dikes another 3.5 feet.

What the flood plain looks like on the map:

Why this story is of interest? Not so much what was reported but what was not reported.

The California Bullet Train.

Link here.

The map from the state of California:

Going back to the earlier map:

Note: this is the easy part of the bullet-train-rail -- flat. No tunnels. No mountains. No major river crossings. Just absolutely flat.

And flooded.

The good news: they can put 12-foot dikes on either side / both sides of the rails.

The bullet train is tracked (no pun intended) here.

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Current Cost / Funding Status

Link here.

 

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