SAN FRANCISCO | Salesforce Transit Center

[simms3_redux]

Update - 11/30. The concrete pour has made it just about to 1st St, so 1.5 more blocks to go. I don't know what the next step is, but

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-...ias-high-speed

California's high-speed rail imperiled by court rulings

In rulings that threaten the future of California's bullet train, a Sacramento judge on Monday ordered the state to draft a new budget for the multibillion dollar project and prove there's enough money to finish the job before it is started.

..

While the authority may still use $3 billion in federal funds to break ground in the Central Valley on the rail line's first miles of track as it had planned, more than $8 billion in rail bond money are off-limits until the state fulfills the rulings' requirements.

The state's quest for a bullet train has been plagued by controversy and court decisions that have pushed the project years behind schedule, with Monday's decision the latest setback. A groundbreaking set for this past summer never happened, and the latest time-frame forecasts a spring start.

But to comply with the judge's order, the authority must first identify a source for more than $25 billion in additional funds needed to complete the project. The federal government will foot the rest of the bill.

...

Kings County and two of its residents brought the lawsuit against the High-Speed Rail Authority that will force the group to rewrite its spending plan. Michael Brady, a San Francisco attorney who represents them, called the judge's rulings a victory that stymies the project.

"It will be many, many more months before the state can get this thing back in gear, if they ever can," Brady said. "The good people of the Central Valley can sleep better tonight knowing their way of life is less threatened."

And, plugging along

http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/11/30/...ent-rules.html

Government rules require California's high-speed trains to be built in U.S.

California has yet to break ground on its controversial high-speed train system, and legal challenges remain in the path of construction.

But that's not stopping the California High-Speed Rail Authority, in conjunction with Amtrak, from shopping around for the best deal on multimillion-dollar trains to roll on their proposed high-speed lines — in California between San Francisco and Los Angeles through the San Joaquin Valley, and Amtrak's Acela service between Boston and Washington, D.C.

Together, the two agencies are preparing to ask for bids in coming weeks from manufacturers to build between 50 and 60 train sets capable of carrying passengers at speeds up to 220 mph.

From a 34-acre plant in southeast Sacramento, Siemens Industry is one of a handful of multinational companies with an eye on the prize — a contract for "rolling stock" potentially worth $2 billion or more.

[Reminiscence]

Its been a while since I've walked by, but I was astounded by how deep they had excavated!

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by Reminiscence

Its been a while since I've walked by, but I was astounded by how deep they had excavated!

I don't know if you read earlier that both TBT and 181 Fremont have to match the same depth, so we're going to have a lot of digging occurring on both sides of this project!

[Reminiscence]

Originally Posted by viewguysf

I don't know if you read earlier that both TBT and 181 Fremont have to match the same depth, so we're going to have a lot of digging occurring on both sides of this project!

I did catch that in the schematics of 181. Both of these towers are pretty massive and tall so I would expect at least a medium to deep hole. Seeing in person is quite surprising even then though, you can see how small the construction workers look from street level

[hruski]

Can someone provide more info about what the plan down there is? The site has looked virtually the same to my untrained eye for over a year. How close are the workers to building up?

[Roadcruiser1]

Originally Posted by hruski

Can someone provide more info about what the plan down there is? The site has looked virtually the same to my untrained eye for over a year. How close are the workers to building up?

The construction schedule is here..........http://transbaycenter.org/constructi...oject-schedule

[hruski]

Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1

The construction schedule is here..........http://transbaycenter.org/constructi...oject-schedule

I hope someone can do a lot better than the provided link. That site can't even settle on a consistent verb tense, and I bet it hasn't been updated since Day 1.

[Reminiscence]

I tried to get a good angle where I could image all the cranes on the Transbay site, but there's a big wall in the way. I think maybe next week I'll try from the other side of the site.

[simms3_redux]

Structural is rising in and amongst all those steel support beams:

[WCArch]

I plan to cover the Transbay Terminal soon on http://westcoastarch.blogspot.com/

check it out if you get the chance

[lz131313]

nothing much just passed by

[peanut gallery]

Construction crews unearthed some Native American remains in the giant hole. They've roped off that area but work continues. From SFGate:

Bones found at Transbay Transit construction site
Michael Cabanatuan, San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A construction crew preparing to pour concrete for the new Transbay Transit Center discovered an old but well-preserved human skeleton - later determined to be that of an American Indian - Tuesday morning.

…

Workers discovered the skeleton at a depth of 60 feet on the east end of the construction site near Fremont Street about 8 a.m., said Stephanie Reichin, a spokeswoman for the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which is building the four-block-long transit hub project.

…

Construction workers have already unearthed a woolly mammoth tooth, believed to be 10,000 to 15,000 years old, and artifacts from working-class Irish neighborhoods that filled the area in the 1800s, along with a small gold nugget.

More at the link, including some up close construction photos (a few months old though).

[peanut gallery]

So many crawler cranes:



And they're pumping concrete:

[Perklol]

So confused....

is this a train/subway terminal or a soon-to-rise skyscraper? New here....

[LWR]

Originally Posted by Eveningsong

So confused....

is this a train/subway terminal or a soon-to-rise skyscraper? New here....

Both!

[Perklol]

Originally Posted by LWR

Both!

Thank you.

[WildCowboy]

Technically it's a skyscraper and a bus terminal that will hopefully someday also include trains.

[peanut gallery]

And just to clarify further, this thread is for the new terminal. There is a separate thread if you want to read about the tower.

[lz131313]

attended a private site tour with the project manager and there is solid progress! structural will poke out in around july and the train concourse has already began construction !also the contract for the bus bridge was awarded recently meaning its getting built!

[mt_climber13]

Has anyone been keeping up with LA's train station progress? I know they are building a ton of subway lines, but how practical are they? It's a shame that HSR will terminate at what will most likely be a rental car office. Imagine SF being connected to a city like NY, Boston, or even Portland. Actually a Portland Seattle extension (and, ideally, Vancouver) would excite me more because of the rail and transit oriented planning of those cities, and their economies would boom with direct HSR to SF.

Does anyone know the plans to connect SF with Sacramento?