A critical 90-mile section of California’s high-speed rail extending the system from the Central Valley into the San Francisco Bay Area has been unanimously approved by the High-Speed Rail (HSR) Authority Board of Directors.

4月28日，董事会批准了北加州梅塞德项目部分的最终环境影响报告/环境影响声明（EIR/EIS）。从旧金山到洛杉矶/阿纳海姆的第一阶段对齐。

With the environmental process complete, the High Speed Rail Authority—the entity responsible for planning, designing, building and operating the nation’s first high-speed rail system—now has a plan moving forward, says HSR spokesman Anthony Lopez.

“We know what the alignment will be and where we will be building, and generally the approach we are going to take with that alignment,” he says.

洛佩兹说，下一步是设计构建和前建造阶段，一旦获得资金，该阶段就可以开始。同时，他说，工作的主要重点是中央山谷，那里有35个活跃的工作地点，跨越119英里。

“The 119 miles will serve as a test and certification track (for the HSR project), as there is currently no place planned or under construction anywhere in the country where we could achieve our voter mandated speeds of 200-plus miles per hour,” says Lopez.

The planned San Jose to Merced project section will connect the existing construction in the Central Valley to San Jose’s Diridon Station, the city’s central passenger rail depot and a major intermodal transit center for Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley. Officials say the high-speed rail system will make the trip from Fresno to San Jose in one hour, compared to three hours by car today.

The certification of the final EIR/EIS and approval of the San Jose to Merced section moves the project closer to being “shovel ready” when pre-construction and construction funding becomes available. For this portion, Alternative 4 was selected as the approved alignment among four alternatives studied. This plan modernizes and electrifies the existing rail corridor between San Jose and Gilroy, allowing for both high-speed rail and Caltrain service.

East of Gilroy, the alignment includes more than 15 miles of tunnels through the Pacheco Pass in the rugged Diablo Range. The project faces significant challenges in this area due to poor-quality rock formations, faults and shear zones, and potentially high groundwater inflows that can affect tunnel stability. Additionally there are risks for biological and natural resources.

“为了设计最安全的隧道，当局正在使用世界各地的最佳实践，”北加州地区总监鲍里斯·利普金（Boris Lipkin）说。“初步的工程分析已经确定隧道钻孔机（TBM）是隧道最有可能的建筑手段。”

Besides approving the San Jose to Merced portion, the Rail Board on April 28 also:

• 批准了中央山谷的四个电台（默塞德，弗雷斯诺，国王 - 塔利尔和贝克菲尔德）的设计
• Approved a multi-million dollar funding and planning agreement with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (LA Metro) to modernize the historic LA Union Station through the Link Union Station (Link US) project

铁路管理局先前已经清除了高速铁路项目的四个项目部分，然后在发布圣何塞（San Jose）到默塞德项目部分环境文件。去年秋天，它批准了Bakersfield到Palmdale Project部分，并于1月份完成了CEQA批准伯班克到洛杉矶部分。在获得这些批准之前，它批准了弗雷斯诺（Fresno）到贝克斯菲尔德（Bakersfield）项目部分，并批准了弗雷斯诺项目部分的默默德（Merced）。