Texas Central has inked its final agreement with their Construction company for the high speed rail project.
That announcement came on Tuesday afternoon from Lane Construction, who said they and their parent company, the Webuild Group, they have signed an agreement with Texas Central worth $16 billion. According to that press release, the agreement consolidates the results of the planning and advanced design stages, plus actualizing it’s value.
Lane Construction and Webuild will execute all heavy construction, designing and building all 236 miles of the alignment, the track system, and the necessary maintenance and industrial buildings. The release says the train would be able to host more than 400,000 passengers everyday, and provide an economic impact of “84 Super Bowls totaling about $36 billion over the next 25 years.”
Lane Construction has experience building large civil engineering projects, including a track record of 8,500 miles of rail and metro lines. Webuild also has worked on projects to improve rail connections across Europe, such as the Brunner Base Tunnel under the Alps, and the Terzo Valico Dei Giovi high speed rail between Genoa and Milan Italy.
Lane Constriction President and CEO Mark Schiller said they are “excited to be part of this historical project that will bring high-speed rail to the United States. it is a true milestone for our country’s sustainable transportation infrastructure, and we are enthusiastic to bring 130 years of experience to the table as the contractor of choice to build it.”
Texans Against High Speed Rail’s Trey Duhon released a statement: “Texas Central takes every opportunity to generate what sounds like progress, to keep interest and investments alive. But, Webuild is just a new name for Salini Impregilo, which has been working with Texas Central for awhile now. Additionally, Texas Central does not have $16B, or the permits needed to construct. Almost a year after being denied an expedited permit, Texas Central has yet to even file the required full construction application with the Surface Transportation Board in Washington DC. Texas Central has been reporting that construction will begin ‘in the next six months,’ ‘later this year,’ or ‘soon,’ for the last five years. With no money, or permits, we do not see any progress here, just something to get their name in the news in an attempt to remain relevant.”
No timetable, or schedule, has been released on when construction would start on the project.