$2.3 billion, 10-mile BART extension to San Jose delayed again
BART to San Jose could be delayed again to the end of next year, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority said, after the agency found a contractor had installed improper communications equipment that needs to be replaced.
The $2.3 billion, 10-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit extension from Fremont to new stations in Milpitas and San Jose’s Berryessa district broke ground in April 2012 and was originally projected to open in June. VTA officials last year boasted that it could open ahead of schedule in December 2017. But testing delays pushed that date back, and VTA officials earlier this year said it might not be open until September 2019.
The repeated delays have worn on Silicon Val-
ley residents tired of waiting for the promised arrival of a transit system that has been talked about for decades to relieve nightmarish highway traffic.
“Here we go again,” said David Marshall, 71, of Milpitas. “I’ve been following this thing since it was a dotted line on a map over the last 20 or 30 years. Every time I wait for a grand opening, it keeps getting pushed back. I find that very disappointing.”
VTA spokeswoman Brandi Childress said in a statement late Thursday that the agency will have a better sense early next year of when service to the Berryessa station can begin after more testing is completed. But VTA requested an extension to the Federal Transit Administration that would reflect a start of passenger service no later than Dec. 31, 2019, she said.
“VTA is making every effort to replace the parts in an expedient manner to mitigate the schedule impacts to the maximum extent possible,” Childress said.
The latest problem involved routers and other equipment related to communications systems that control things like passenger information signs, nexttrain signals, public address systems, closed-circuit television, radio, fire alarms and secure door access badges, VTA spokeswoman Bernice Alaniz said.
On June 12, Childress said, VTA was told that some of the networking equipment installed to date “does not comply with contract requirements and must be replaced.” Replacement equipment has been ordered and some already delivered.
The installed parts functioned but were either used or otherwise out of compliance with the contract specifications for manufacturer warranties, Alaniz said.
“In other environments sometimes these parts can be used,” Alaniz said. “But VTA specified in our contract they had to be all new
“I’ve been following this thing since it was a dotted line on a map over the last 20 or 30 years. Every time I wait for a grand opening, it keeps getting pushed back.” — David Marshall, 71, of Milpitas
parts and as spec’d.”
Alaniz said the replacement would cost $1.25 million, and that VTA expects that to be covered by the contractor. VTA is investigating to determine how the mistake happened, she said.
“I share our residents’ frustration in both the news of this delay as well as the circumstances that caused it,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a VTA board member. “Our top priority is ensuring that we have a safe and secure system, which is why we’re working to replace the improper equipment as soon as possible. We’ll also be looking into exactly how this happened in order to hold the responsible parties accountable for their errors and to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Alaniz said that SkanskaShimmick-Herzog, the joint venture chosen as the general contractor, “is working diligently with us and they’re a part of the remedy.”
While BART will operate the trains once the extension is opened, VTA is responsible for building the project. “We’re supporting how VTA is handling this,” BART spokeswoman Anna Duckworth said, “because that’s a VTA project.”
Santa Clara County opted out of joining the original BART system in the 1960s, but as South Bay traffic worsened in the 1980s, local officials began pushing for a 16-mile BART extension from Fremont into San Jose and Santa Clara.
Voters in 2000 approved a tax to build the BART line. That was followed by a second tax approved in 2008 to cover operating costs. Voters approved a third tax in 2016 to help fund the segment from Berryessa to downtown San Jose.
A second phase project to extend BART 6 miles from Berryessa into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara is projected to be completed in 2026, and its timing is unaffected by the latest hiccup in the Berryessa extension project, Alaniz said.
The tracks and stations from Fremont to Berryessa have already been built and the system has been in testing. Ridership for the Berryessa extension is estimated to start at 23,000 a day and to double after 15 years.
Alaniz said the Berryessa extension is still expected to come in under its $2.3 billion budget.
“We are taking the appropriate measures to mitigate the delay wherever possible,” Childress said, “and will continue to look for potential ways to accelerate the start of passenger service.”