We Can't Wait: Obama Administration Announces Two California Transportation Projects to Be Expedited

[trailmonkee]

Source: GovNews

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, as part of his We Can’t Wait initiative, President Obama announced that two nationally and regionally significant surface transportation projects in California will be expedited to put Americans to work building a 21st century infrastructure and providing California with more transportation choices. These projects will improve local and regional connectivity, providing for the safe and efficient movement of people, goods and services. Early, intensive coordination among agencies is expected to save up to 6 months on project schedules.

As part of a Presidential Executive Order issued in March of this year, the Office of Management and Budget is charged with overseeing a government-wide effort to make the permitting and review process for infrastructure projects more efficient and effective, saving time while driving better outcomes for local communities. The Administration’s efforts to continuously add more transparency, accountability, and certainty into the permitting and review process will enable project developers and private investors to more efficiently modernize our nation’s infrastructure. Additional expedited infrastructure projects will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Investments in infrastructure are putting people back to work in California by building and modernizing our transportation systems,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “This is good news for the local economy, and it’s one more sign of President Obama’s commitment to help communities across the country move forward with these critical projects as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

California High Speed Rail – Central Valley Construction
State: California
Coordinating Agency: Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration
Target date for completing Federal permit and review decisions: October 2013

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San Francisco Downtown Ferry Terminal
State: California
Coordinating Agency: Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration
Target date for completing Federal permit and review decisions: July 2014

Read more: http://govne.ws/item/We-Can-t-Wait-Obama-Administration-Announces-Two-California-Transportation-Projects-to-Be-Expedited?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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[wryter2000]

1. High speed rail

Yipee!!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. From Hooterville

To Petticoat Junction

[xxqqqzme]

5. Yep!

n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

10. The Bakersfield Delano census area has about 850,000 people. Fresno is CA's 5th

largest city, with about 480,00 it bigger than Oakland and Sacramento. Which one is Petticoat Junction?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. The choices were sheer political cowardice

I support HS rail, but any rational traffic forecast for the current plan says its far from supportable. One end needed to be in LA, not the Central Valley.

[left on green only]

3. I think it is a great idea, and it certainly did help to get our country.....

.....rolling again during the 1930's, but why wait so long to get all of the approvals, before hiring people to do the jobs? We already have plenty of currently existing bridges and highways and tunnels and runways and rail lines that are crumbling from dis-repair that will not require extensive environmental impact studies before repair can begin.

In the case of the High Speed Rail - Central Valley Construction, I am sure that many of the people who could be working on it will die of starvation before the October 2013 completion date of the approval process.

I once rode the Amtrack rails from Seattle to the S.F. Bay Area, and while passing through Oregon, I saw how the earth had been allowed to erode out from under the rails on many of the mountain passes. Then I looked down to the canyons below and saw the mangled skeletons of passenger rail cars before me that "couldn't stay on the tracks", and I thought to myself, "WTF", why are we allowing these conditions to exist? But that was after I first thought to myself. "I'm sure as hell not riding on this puppy again".

[Tikki]

9. Great news for California....

And others...


Tikki

[kestrel91316]

4. Jobs, yay! Now can you folks please send us more BUSES? And DRIVERS? To serve existing bus routes???

[xxqqqzme]

8. I hear that.

We have a transportation board in OC, appointed by rethugs, who don't believe in public transportation. They're getting ready to raise the fares 25%. A $55 monthly pass will cost $69.

[BrainMann1]

6. Let's see what the GOP does to this.

[Iliyah]

7. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS

Damn straight, he needs to work around the GOP congress because they won't do nothing.

[liberal N proud]

11. HSR!

[KoKo]

12. Sounds Great! K&R!

[trailmonkee]

14. since California is pretty much a gimme for Obama...

... And both of these projects are in California, this shows that Obama isn't just pandering for votes...