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Dirty Business as Usual at California High Speed Rail
Out of the entire universe of those who could have won the first phase construction contract for California's high speed rail boondoggle, who would stand out as the last person who would win it if there were no political patronage.Put another way, who is the most likely person to win it if there is political patronage? Both questions have the same answer: Richard Blum, the husband of California senator Diane Feinstein. So, who won the contract? Blum, of course, as the principle owner of Tutor Perini, the lead firm in the three-firm consortium selected by the California High Speed Rail Authority. Yes, Diane, it really does look that bad to us little people. The Perini-Zachary-Parsons bid was the lowest received from the five consortia participating in the bidding process, but "low" is a relative term. The firms bid $985,142,530 to build the wildly anticipated first section of high speed rail track that will tie the megopolis of Madera to the global finance center of Fresno. Do the division, and you find that the low bid came in at a mere $35 million per mile. And that doesn't include the cost of rolling stock (that's engines and cars to the normal among us). Nor does it include the cost of electrifying the route. Does it at least include the cost of land acquisition? No, it does not. As this fiasco progress, remember that this $35 million per mile represents the best California can do on the section of track the High on Crack Speed Rail Authority selected to go first because it will be the cheapest. Posted by: Beavis 2013-04-28 |
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