You can drive up and over future bullet-train tracks. See two new overpasses near Fresno
Construction crews working on California’s high-speed rail line completed work on two new overcrossings near Hanford in Kings County, reopening roads that now carry traffic up and over the future bullet-train tracks.
The grade separations are at Dover Avenue near 8th Avenue, north of Hanford, and at Idaho Avenue east of Highway 43, southeast of Hanford. The California High-Speed Rail Authority and its contractor, Dragados-Flatiron Joint Venture, announced the completion of the structures and held ribbon-cuttings at each location on Wednesday.
The two sites are among about a dozen locations in Kings County where new structures are being built to separate car and truck traffic from the high-speed rail route so there are no at-grade crossings of the tracks.
Toni Tinoco, deputy director in the Central Valley region for the high-speed rail agency, said that work was accelerated on the Idaho Avenue overpass because flooding from winter rains and spring snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada has disrupted other traffic routes in the Hanford area.
“We had planned to open up this overcrossing eventually,” she said as she stood atop the Idaho Avenue structure. “But we understand the need to have additional access for emergency roads (and) for just traffic in general because of the floodings.”
Construction crews broke ground in February 2021 on the Dover Avenue overcrossing. Truckloads of dirt were hauled in to form slopes for the overpass, and pre-cast concrete girders were used to form the superstructure of the overpass. The overpass itself spans 227 feet and is 43 feet wide.
At Idaho Avenue, construction began in April 2020 as crews hauled in more than 11,000 cubic yards of dirt to form the slopes, and a temporary road was built around the site to allow east-west traffic to continue to flow through the area. As with the Dover Avenue overpass, pre-cast concrete girders were placed to support the road bed, which includes about 270 cubic yards of concrete.
The Idaho Avenue structure is 205 feet long and 40 feet wide.
“Throughout the Central Valley we’ve completed more than 30 structures,” Tinoco said. “This is just one of many structures we need to open before we can start laying down tracks, before we start track and systems.”
Between the two overpasses, work continues on an elevated viaduct at the eastern edge of Hanford, just east of Highway 43. The Hanford Viaduct, which will be almost 1.2 miles long, will carry future high-speed trains up and over the existing San Joaquin Valley Railroad freight tracks, Lacey Boulevard and Highway 198. A future high-speed rail station will also be located along the elevated tracks to serve passengers in Kings and Tulare counties.
Rail contractors previously completed work on four other road overpasses in Kings County, including one at Jackson Avenue and another at Kent Avenue.
Kings County is included in the rail authority’s Construction Package 2-3, which encompasses about 65 miles of the planned rail line from south of Fresno to just north of the Tulare-Kern county line. It is one of three construction contracts now underway spanning about 119 miles from north of Madera to northwest of Shafter, in Kern County.
