The infamous California High-Speed Rail may take an extra 15 years to build, travel underground through several very dangerous geologic faults, and rise in cost to $93 billion.
Voters passed Proposition 1A, titled the “Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century,” in November 2008. Since that time, it has become clear that riding under up to 36 miles of the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountains will be dangerous, unreliable and slow–if the project it is ever completed.
The original estimates in the bond disclosure statement promised the cost would be only $33 billion, with a 2010 construction start and full operation by 2222. But when the project actually broke ground earlier this year, the official estimate was raised to $68.4 billion and a 2028 completion for the Los Angeles to San Francisco project.
The project route runs between the San Gabriel and the San Andreas faults. Since being formed 1.7 billion years ago, the Pacific tectonic plate has relentlessly grinded 200 miles northward against the North American tectonic plate.
Natural tectonic movements will continue to create a highly fractured and constantly changing underground spiderweb of granite blocks and crevasses. There are also numerous vertical “slip faults” moving up and down, plus sub-faults moving horizontally east and west. Geologists compare the mountainous area the train will pass through to a game of pick-up sticks, where every few years there is a tremendous collapse.
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