CHSRA meets federal funding deadline

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) submitted the final state match to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding grant.

Last week, the FRA approved $846 million in state match dollars previously submitted, bringing the total approved to almost $1.6 billion. The FRA will now review the remaining grant match submittals.

The CHSRA used the $2.5 billion in ARRA funding by the statutory deadline of September 2017. As approved by the FRA, the authority first used the federal funds, followed by spending state matching funds no later than the end of 2022.

The final invoice package totals $64 million and includes construction work performed in October and November 2020. Currently, construction is underway on 119 miles in the Central Valley, with 35 active job sites and more than 5,200 labor jobs created to date.