Readers with a special interest in this subject should find interesting a new article that covers the fight between the construction of California’s “bullet train” project and our environmental laws. It focuses on Madera County (between Fresno and Merced), an agricultural region where the first leg of the “bullet train” is going to be built. It contains considerable detail of this controversy and a list of all cases that have been filed against the project. Glenn Martin, Collision Course — Holding Up the Bullet Train; It’s the cover story of the latest issue of the California Lawyer, May 2013, at p. 18. The article is on line — go to California Lawyer on Google, and you’ll find it there.
Related item: Today’s L.A. Times informs us that there is a controversy over the report that the selected contractor for that first leg of the California “bullet train” submitted the lowest bid of $985 million “even though its design quality, safety plan and engineering, among other factors, ranked at the bottom of five teams seeking the works.” Ralph Vartabedian, Bullet Train Builder Faces Tests, L.A. Times, May 28, 2013, at p. AA1.