Silicon Valley’s long-awaited BART expansion could be delayed for another year and a half while officials consider cutting one of the project’s largest contracts to save costs. VTA wants to look for a new contractor to bore the expansion’s five-mile tunnel, after being unable to reach an agreement with the current contractor, Kiewit Shea Traylor....
San Jose business owner loses property for BART expansion
Sridhar Kollareddy walks between thousands of imported marbled granite slabs, slated to become countertops or gravestones. His business, Silicon Valley Granite, has sold the slabs across the Bay Area for 20 years from his San Jose facility. But now, he’s being forced to vacate the property in less than 72 hours to make way for...
VTA BART expansion work to include minority-owned businesses
VTA has pledged to increase contracting opportunities for minority-owned businesses in its ongoing BART expansion into San Jose. Sergio Lopez, mayor of Campbell and chair of VTA’s board of directors, signed the Equity in Infrastructure Project pledge on behalf of the agency Monday, alongside more than a dozen local government agencies. The VTA board unanimously...
NBC Bay Area: Safety concerns about plans for deep BART tunnel in San Jose
BART officials warned the head of the Valley Transportation Authority in 2017 that the single-bore tunnel design planned for the San Jose extension posed “serious risks to safety.”
San Jose officials juggle transit design with city disruption
Silicon Valley transportation leaders are closer than ever to turning San Jose’s doorstep into one of the West Coast’s largest mass transit hubs. They just have to come up with billions to pay for it and get residents on board with the ongoing effects of major construction over the next few decades. The San Jose...
Silicon Valley BART expansion has multimillion-dollar shortfall
Federal funding will be flowing into Silicon Valley to help expand BART service to Santa Clara, but the revenue is just short of VTA’s request, leaving officials looking for ways to plug the shortfall. VTA announced a $5.1 billion grant on Friday from the Federal Transportation Agency for the second phase of BART’s expansion into...
San Jose BART expansion needs federal funding to finish the job
Construction workers broke ground on BART’s expansion in Santa Clara this week, and officials are banking on federal funding to help finish the job. Santa Clara County Supervisor and VTA Board Chair Cindy Chavez and other labor leaders urged the Federal Transportation Agency on Tuesday to approve VTA’s $6.2 billion funding request to support the...
UPDATE: Prep begins for Santa Clara BART extension
BART’s expansion through Silicon Valley is taking shape as pre-construction work gets underway in Santa Clara. VTA workers have started on-site preparations for phase two of BART’s expansion at the Newhall Maintenance Facility. That includes setting up temporary field offices, bringing in equipment and preparations to begin drilling the tunnel. The 6-mile extension, most of...
Cost of San Jose BART extension balloons — again
The VTA megaproject to bring BART to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, with a cost estimate that’s already ballooned to more than two and a half times its original target, is now facing yet another increase and timeline delay. Officials said this week the six-mile extension project for the rail line is expected to...
VTA to push out San Jose property owners for BART extension
The Valley Transit Authority will move forward with its plan to force out the owners and tenants of two buildings in downtown San Jose to make room for the future BART extension. In a meeting this week, VTA’s board of directors voted to allow the agency to assume ownership of the buildings on East Santa...