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Beginning this month, the California High Speed Rail Authority will launch a series of environmental scoping meetings in northern California to provide local public officials and residents an opportunity to comment on portions of the proposed 800-mile statewide high-speed rail system.

"This signifies that we now are moving forward with actual development of the system," said authority Chairman Quentin Kopp during a meeting held last week. "This enables people to learn more about and contribute to specific routing, connections and other details necessary to build the system and begin operation."

The authority already has conducted scoping sessions in southern California. Last year, the agency approved broader, program-level environmental reviews. Now, authority officials are working on project-specific technical studies, impact analyses and mitigation measures that must be complete before construction can begin.

In November, voters approved Proposition 1A, which authorizes the authority to issue nearly $10 billion in bonds to help finance the high-speed rail system, which will link San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco and the Central Valley.