Bullet train hits $63-million bump

The California rail authority on Tuesday approved increasing a contract to build the first 29 miles of the bullet train system by $63 million to compensate its lead contractor for delays in land acquisitions.

Tutor Perini was awarded a $1-billion contract in 2013 to construct bridges, viaducts, trenches and other structures from Madera to downtown Fresno, hoping to complete the job no later than 2017. But at the time the state had secured only a few of the hundreds of parcels needed, and Tutor delayed the start of construction by more than two years.

The High-Speed Rail Authority said $50 million of the increase would offset labor, materials and equipment standby charges that the company incurred as a result of the delay. Another $13.6 million will go toward speeding up construction, including embarking on a six-day workweek, the authority said.

The contract schedule also was lengthened by 17 months, with Tutor now aiming to complete the work by August 2019. Officials said the additional money would come out of contingency funds set aside for the high-speed rail project.

The state encountered stiff opposition to its efforts to buy parcels, particularly from farmers who objected to the diagonal crossing of their fields.

“Opponents of major infrastructure projects have long used legal maneuvers and other tactics to try to stop construction — practices that hurt local businesses, delay hiring and waste taxpayer dollars,” rail authority spokeswoman Lisa Marie Alley said. “Fortunately, we’ve prepared and accounted for these sorts of situations by building in a prudent reserve — as reflected in our business plan — and the project’s overall budget and schedule will not be impacted.”

The rail authority has acknowledged in the past that it was not fully prepared to begin an aggressive land acquisition program in 2013 and had to take time to get enough appraisers and other professionals on board.

The $50-million in delay compensation is about half of what internal Tutor documents had been projecting as of late last year. The company had parked dozens of pieces of heavy equipment at yards in Fresno, as it awaited land to being construction.

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com