February 2019 Edition

At the northern end of Construction Package 1, crews continue building the structures (called diaphragms) that will connect the girders to one another along the sides at the Road 27 Grade Separation in MaderaCounty. They are also preparing for closure pours which will connect the girder sections end to end. Ultimately, the bridge will be nearly 650 feet long with frontage roads providing access to local homes along the sides.

At the San Joaquin River Viaduct, foundations have been poured for a cast-in-place concrete arch that will act as the high-speed rail “gateway to Fresno County.” Nearby, a worker uses a high-pressure hose to blow debris out of the rebar in preparation for another concrete structure pour. The completed viaduct, nearly a mile in length, will be one of the largest structures on this first phase of the high-speed rail project.

A little north of downtown Fresno, workers are nearing completion of the excavation for the high-speed rail crossing under State Route 180. As crews put the finishing touches on the walls inside the undercrossing, others excavate the area outside where the trains will come back to grade. The next step will be to construct a concrete box that will carry trains under the highway, a rail spur and the Dry Creek Canal. Crews have reached the bottom of the trench and are fine grading the area in order to start the box construction. Ultimately, the trench will extend approximately 1 mile in length.

At the Cedar Viaduct, construction crews continue extending the structure across State Route 99 south of Fresno. Columns for several support piers are rising on both sides of the highway and in the median as well. The viaduct will eventually be connected to the smaller Muscat Viaduct a little further to the south. One of the largest structures on Construction Package 1, the Cedar Viaduct will be about three-quarters of a mile long when it’s complete.

At Avenue 15, construction is underway again on the west side abutment wall and center pier. The 35-foot-tall west abutment was poured earlier this month. The formwork from the west abutment will next be moved over to the east abutment for crews to begin raising that structure out of the ground. The central pier has falsework around the columns and a rebar crew is tying the steel for the bent cap which will tie the two columns together. This two-span structure will take traffic over the future high-speed train and the existing BNSF freight rail alignment.

A little east of Madera Community College, crews have poured the concrete deck and are now setting concrete forms for barrier walls along the sides of the Avenue 12 overcrossing. Walls adjacent to the Avenue 12 overpass crossing the existing freight rail line are also being constructed. The recent rains slowed down the progress of the footings, but walls are starting to be formed on the west side of the tracks. The realignment of the busy roadway with two separate bridges will take traffic over the high-speed rail line and the BNSF freight tracks a little further east.

Though the bridge itself is largely complete, recent cold temperatures and rain have held up final asphalt paving for the roadway leading up to it. This crossing for Avenue 11, a little east of Road 30 ½, will take traffic over the high-speed train alignment in Madera County.

As at Avenue 11, the bridge deck for the Avenue 8 overcrossing in Madera County is mostly complete, but final paving for the approaches waits for better weather.