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California’s high-speed rail projects have been under heavy scrutiny over the past few months due to long delays and rising budgets. In its decision to withdraw federal funds from the project, the Trump administration has denounced state leaders and high-speed rail agencies.
A new report from a San Diego nonprofit organization points to third parties allowing requirements as another perpetrator of long delays in projects, and is the reason for slowing down transportation projects across the state.
Reports from San Diego’s distribution suggest that the requirements initially imposed decades ago to stop infrastructure projects from tearing apart neighborhoods created new hurdles to delay transportation numbers to schedules.
“Policies aimed at restricting highways from separating communities now prevent the construction of public transport that aims to sew communities together,” wrote Colin’s parents, a general council circulating in San Diego, in “Powerless Brokers: Why California Can’t Building Transportation.” The report was released on Monday.
The delays in the transport project are not quarantined in California, parents said. However, the results of the delays are astounding here, as the state’s high-speed rail trains are one of the most ambitious and widely criticized projects in the country.
In many cases, multiple jurisdictions are required to sign off for projects other than major transport. In the case of high-speed rail, parents describe disputes that arise between the authorities who extended the construction timeline and the city authorities. In Wasco, for example, differences between the city and authorities over the creation of underground passages and other projects have led to years of delays in construction and increased costs.
“I think a lot of people are ready to decide which projects they want to build, get the funds, do an environmental review, then build things up.
“They need to receive permission and other contracts to go through a whole new set of processes in order to actually build the projects they have approved. These additional processes can create any kind of delay, additional costs, and other challenges to build the projects that policymakers say they want to do.”
Environmental reviews can take time to ensure that you can seek general support.
Not all cities and counties face the same challenges when it comes to coordinating projects. The Los Angeles and Bay Area regions each include 27 independent transport operators, parents said. In the San Diego area, there are only two.
In Los Angeles, the metro often needs to coordinate with the Los Angeles Department of Transport, the Engineering and Streets Bureau. In the report, parents highlighted the transport expansion project located under Wilshire Boulevard on the D-Line, formerly known as the Purple Line. The project saw widespread support from city authorities, but faced the initial challenges to demand from the DWP and the Department of Engineering.
In the early and mid-20th century, U.S. urban infrastructure projects were not checked, leading to the destruction of communities that had greatly evacuated disadvantaged and working-class residents. Perhaps no one represents a better time than the late city planner Robert Moses, who shaped the New York City skyline and destroyed highway and bridge projects, destroying city blocks and neighborhoods. Due to his multiple appointed positions in state and local government, he was one of the state’s most powerful and divisive figures from the 1920s to the 1960s.
To diversify such power in a system of checks and balance, community advocates have established environmental standards, promoted laws to regulate project approval, allowing affected communities to be represented in decision-making. No one is pushing for a return to the era of people like Moses, parents and state legislators in California, but I believe that today’s requirements have created new obstacles.
“Many rules related to permits that are preventing the construction of infrastructure, including public transport, have really expanded since the ’70s,” the parent said Monday. “There’s been a multi-year growth in the kind of barriers and hoops that applicants and public institutions have to jump over to win projects.”
So, what is the solution? With delays in transportation projects across the US, parents believe that Quebec and Ontario standards can offer better models. There, transportation is self-permitted if an external party does not meet certain timeline requirements regarding the permit.
“These local governments are under the timeline and if they do not review and approve or deny those permissions within the period, transportation will be self-authorized,” the parent said.
State Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill that takes a similar approach this year. Focusing on high-speed rail, the bill implements time limits on third-party approval and rejection processes.
During a recent state legislative hearing, Winner said that “a city or water district or special district that requires some kind of invasion permit” could delay the process of the project by simply doing nothing.
“They can’t just respond or limp, sometimes for good reason… sometimes for no good reason. In this case, there’s nothing that a high-speed rail can do about it,” he said.
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