According to a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) study obtained through a Public Records Act request, the launch of San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) Extension Project might be delayed until 2034, a four-year extension of the present plan.
The VTA’s timeframe has been altered in recent months. Local transportation officials have added 10 months to their tunnel mining schedule and cut their projections for the tunnel’s construction rate to around 36 feet per day.
Nonetheless, FTA officials claim that the tunnel will be built without causing longer-term interruptions to Santa Clara Street, as some business owners have feared.
Project overview
The San Jose BART extension, also known as the Silicon Valley extension, is an ongoing project to extend the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system from its old endpoint in Alameda County, at the Fremont Station, to Santa Clara County in California through the East Bay.
The first phase was the Warm Springs BART expansion, which cost US$ 790M and ended at the new Warm Springs/South Fremont station. The expansion and new station opened in 2017 after construction began in 2009.
The second phase, known as phase I of the Silicon Valley BART expansion or the Berryessa extension, is worth US$ 2.3bn and comprises two additional stations, Milpitas and Berryessa/North San Jose. Construction began in 2012, and the extension and its two new stations were dedicated on June 12, 2020, with public service beginning the following day.
Also Read: AirTrain extension at San Francisco International Airport completed
The BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project, as it is officially known, will extend BART service from the newly opened Berryessa Station in northeast San Jose through downtown San Jose and into the city of Santa Clara.
It will include four stations, a maintenance facility, and five miles of the subway tunnel. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is in charge of the project, which is the greatest infrastructure project in Santa Clara County’s history.
Reported earlier
Oct 2020
FTA announces US $1.2bn grant for BART project in San Francisco, California
The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced a US $1.2bn grant agreement with the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) for the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity project in San Francisco, California.
The project will improve capacity on the existing BART heavy rail system between the City of Oakland and downtown San Francisco. The total project cost is US $2.7bn with US $1.2bn in funding committed through FTA’s Capital Investment Grants (CIG) Program.
Also Read: Construction of Vancouver Broadway Subway in Canada set to begin
Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)
According to FTA Deputy Administrator K. Jane Williams, this investment in California will improve public transportation and support economic recovery in the Bay Area. “This project will allow BART to operate additional trains through the Transbay Tube, helping to alleviate crowding and increase capacity in this critical corridor,” he said.
He further added that the federal funding is an economic boost for the Bay Area as the project will create jobs and help communities recover from the COVID-19 public health emergency.
FTA’s CIG program provides funding for major transit infrastructure projects nationwide. Projects accepted into the program must go through a multi-year, multi-step process according to requirements in law to be eligible for consideration to receive program funds.
With this announcement, FTA has advanced funding for 40 new CIG projects throughout the nation under the current government since January 20, 2017, totaling approximately US $10.7bn in funding commitments.
