California high-speed rail approves $3.5 billion track contract
High-speed rail just crossed a threshold: a $3.5 billion contract will put track, wires and controls onto 119 miles already built through Fresno County.
For the first time, California’s high-speed rail project has a contract to turn finished guideway into a working rail line, a shift that could be felt from Fresno to Kern County long before passengers ever board.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority Board approved a not-to-exceed $3.5 billion Track and Systems Construction Contract, awarding the work to a joint venture of Kiewit, Stacey Witbeck and Herzog. The deal covers 119 miles of Central Valley guideway and includes track, overhead contact system, train control and communications work needed for trains designed to run up to 220 mph.
That matters in Fresno County because the project is moving out of the dirt-moving phase and into the railway installation phase. Authority officials said the contract follows a competitive procurement launched in November 2025 and marks the transition from major civil construction to building an electrified rail system. The board also moved forward with early work packages that will allow track and systems installation to begin as civil segments are completed, instead of waiting for the whole line to be done at once.
The Authority said it had already directly procured long-lead materials such as rail, concrete ties and ballast to speed delivery and improve cost efficiency. The completed 150-acre southern railhead facility in Kern County is already set up to receive freight deliveries, a logistical step that should make the next phase faster to stage and install.
For Fresno County, the bigger long-term prize is not just the line itself but the heavy maintenance facility. The board advanced Fresno and Hanford as possible sites for the only heavy maintenance facility in the statewide system, a complex that would initially receive trains for testing, commissioning and acceptance. Authority materials put the staffing level at 150 to 160 workers at the facility, with maintenance and operating jobs spread across the system. The June 2026 screening list also included Castle Commerce Center, Merced Mission Avenue, Merced Option B, Kojima, Fagundes, Gordon-Shaw, Wasco, Shafter East and Shafter West.
Authority leaders framed the vote as evidence that the project is finally becoming real infrastructure. Chief executive Ian Choudri said the contract marks the point where the program becomes an operating railway rather than just a construction site. Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula also cast it as an economic opening for the Central Valley, where the Authority says more than 16,000 jobs have already been created and more than $11 billion in economic output has been generated from July 2006 through June 2025.
Testing of the initial electrified line is planned to begin in 2028. The 119-mile Central Valley segment runs through Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties and is intended to grow into a 171-mile Merced-Bakersfield line. That is still years away from passenger service, but the contract does narrow one of the project’s biggest credibility gaps: after a long record of promises, Fresno County can now point to track, wire and systems work that has actually been funded and awarded.
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