California High Speed Rail Authority, others celebrate 10K jobs created
Feb. 14—WASCO — Just before Garth Fernandez and Amit Bose spoke to the media, railroad contractors positioned themselves behind them to be part of what they all called a milestone on Tuesday.
Fernandez, Central Valley regional director for the California High Speed Rail Authority, and Bose, administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration, wanted to tout that the massive rail construction project has created 10,000 jobs over the past 10 years.
A banner was posted in the distance behind where Fernandez and Bose stood.
"10,000 Jobs and Counting," it read.
"This project cannot be done without the hard working men and women, who are mostly local," Fernandez said. "... Two years ago, we had a banner that said 5,000 jobs. Two years later, we have 10,000. We have a long way to go."
Workers stayed busy on the rail near Highway 43 and Jackson Avenue.
Those workers are part of a bullet-train project of 119 miles from the northwest of Bakersfield to Madera.
Fernandez said more jobs will come and that it is important to recognize and celebrate each milestone. The contractors concurred.
"I'm excited because those 10,000 jobs are 10,000 mortgage-paying jobs," said Josh Taylor, a special representative for Southwest Mountain States Regional Council of Carpenters. Taylor said he assigned "hundreds and hundreds" of contractors to job sites.
"The construction jobs that are being created here are not just run-of-the-mill, minimum-wage jobs," he said. "These are well-paid jobs."
Fernandez acknowledged that more money is needed to complete the project. Much of that money will be needed from the federal government.
All he can do is hope that the money will come. Last year, the California rail agency's application for $1.2 billion was passed over from federal funding.
Roughly $3.5 billion in federal stimulus, economic recovery and railroad infrastructure grants has come to California for its high-speed rail program, much of that coming almost 10 years ago, the Fresno Bee reported.
Bose talked about the benefits that have been coming from the high speed rail project.
"President Biden just a week ago at the State of the Union talked about how important it is to create good-paying, union jobs and this project reflects that," Bose said. "From the federal government we stand here shoulder to shoulder with the California High Speed Rail Authority, with California, with Gov. Newsom and the California Department of Transportation to deliver this project."
The project is far from completion. Fernandez estimated that by the end of the decade the project from Bakersfield to Madera would be completed. He would not provide specifics of more recent updates saying that information is being gathered for an update to present to the state Legislature in March.
