Texas Central, developers of the high-speed train between North Texas and Houston, announced an agreement today with Bechtel to work together on project management services.
Bechtel has completed more than 300 major train and subway projects, including the Channel Tunnel High Speed 1, Crossrail in London, Riyadh Metro and Dulles Corridor Metrorail in the Washington, D.C., area.
Bechtel will support Texas Central in managing the Texas Bullet Train project as it moves from development to implementation.
The announcement is the latest significant step forward for the innovative, investor-led project – a 200 mph train that will connect the state’s largest cities in 90 minutes, with a midway stop in the Brazos Valley. Nearly 50,000 Texans, sometimes called “super-commuters,” travel back and forth between Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth more than once a week. Many others make the trip very regularly. The approximately 240-mile high-speed rail line will offer a total travel time of less than 90 minutes, with convenient departures every 30 minutes during peak periods each day, and every hour during off-peak periods – with 6 hours reserved each night for system maintenance and inspection.
“We’re putting all of the elements together, building toward the expected 10,000 direct jobs each year during construction in Texas. The addition of Bechtel, with its experience in train and mega-infrastructure project experience, is another sign of the expertise this project is attracting and leveraging,” Texas Central CEO Carlos Aguilar said.
Bechtel, a U.S.-based company with an office in Houston and about 2,000 employees in Texas, has global expertise in managing and constructing high-speed train infrastructure. The organization has delivered complex, heavy civil projects for more than 100 years.
“We look forward to using our international high-speed train experience to progress this transformative project in the United States,” said Scott Osborne, Bechtel’s Infrastructure general manager, Americas. “The high-speed connection between Houston and North Texas will begin a new era of travel and convenience for riders.”
The partnership comes after Texas Central selected Fluor Enterprises and The Lane Construction Corporation to perform pre-construction planning with engineering support from WSP, a leading engineering and professional services consultancy. All have global expertise in construction projects, infrastructure planning and international rail development.
Texas Central, Fluor, Lane and WSP are refining and updating construction planning and sequencing, scheduling and cost estimates and other design and engineering activities. That’s being guided by the Federal Railroad Administration’s recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the project.
Teams of technical experts continue working on the project every day as the environmental assessments, engineering, design and other work enters a new phase.
The DEIS for the first time outlined a single, preferred route between North Texas and Houston, identified passenger station locations and recognized the train system’s low-impact design and construction principles.
It cited many factors in support of the project, saying the train would “alleviate the strain” on Texas’ infrastructure and “is needed to accommodate growing demand.”
The FRA will complete a final environmental review that will help determine the project’s timeline and route before construction begins.
About Texas Central
Texas Central is developing a new high-speed train that will connect North Texas, the Brazos Valley and Houston, using proven, world-class technology. The 90-minute trip will provide a safe, reliable and productive transportation alternative. The company’s market-led approach is backed by investors, not government grants, a new business model for infrastructure advances. Texas Central and its affiliated entities will be responsible for the system’s design, finance, construction, operation and maintenance. See more at www.texascentral.com.
About Bechtel
Bechtel is one of the most respected global engineering, construction, and project management companies. Together with our customers, we deliver landmark projects that foster long-term progress and economic growth. Since 1898, we’ve completed more than 25,000 extraordinary projects across 160 countries on all seven continents. We operate through four global businesses: Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; Oil, Gas & Chemicals; and Mining & Metals. Our company and our culture are built on more than a century of leadership and a relentless adherence to our values, the core of which are safety, quality, ethics, and integrity. These values are what we believe, what we expect, what we deliver, and what we live. www.Bechtel.com
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