Bullet-train route OK’d from San Joaquin Valley to Bay Area. How are wildlife, farms affected?

A proposed route between the San Joaquin Valley and the Bay Area for California’s bullet-train system received final approval Thursday from the California High Speed Rail Authority.

The agency’s board of directors, meeting in Sacramento, voted to certify a massive four-volume report of environmental and social impacts that the route would have on communities, farms, parks and wildlife habitats along the 89-mile stretch of the line from San Jose through Gilroy into Merced County.

That vote set the stage for a second action that formally approved the preferred route, filtered out over a years-long process from among four options involving crossing the Diablo Range via Pacheco Pass west of Los Banos.

Among key features of the route are plans for a 13.5-mile tunnel through the mountains north and east of the San Luis Reservoir, and about 15 miles of elevated tracks to carry the high-speed trains above highways on the San Francisco Peninsula and over canals and environmentally sensitive wetlands in the San Joaquin Valley.

Between Gilroy and San Jose, the trains will largely operate on tracks shared with the existing Caltrain commuter rail system. Those tracks are being upgraded and electrified to accommodate the high-speed trains and convert Caltrain away from diesel locomotives.

One unique feature proposed for the route in western Merced County is a stretch of low-profile viaduct as the tracks cross through the Grasslands Ecological Area north of Los Banos. That segment would also include what Serge Stanich, the rail agency’s environmental director, described as an opaque “bird tube,” or enclosure that would not only reduce the prospect of noise from trains startling birds and other wildlife as they pass, but also to protect birds from electrocution by alighting on the overhead electrical lines that power the trains.

“The Grasslands Ecological Area is a highly sensitive area of about 160,000 acres of wetlands, the largest remaining in California,” Stanich told the board in a presentation Wednesday. “We’ve been working with the Grasslands Water District and a number of other stakeholders to incorporate protections in this area,” including the bird tube.

Among four major alternatives identified by planners more than 13 years ago, the chosen option involves the fewest displacements of homes, businesses and farm structures, and would permanently take about 1,033 acres of “important farmland” out of production, mostly in the San Joaquin Valley.

At-grade rail crossings between San Jose and Gilroy will have enhanced protection to prevent automobile, bicycle and pedestrian traffic from going around barriers and entering crossings as trains approach. Those upgraded traffic precautions are intended to allow the high-speed trains to move through the area at speeds up to 110 mph, said Gary Kennerly, director of Northern California projects for the rail authority.

In the Coyote Valley south of San Jose, wildlife crossings are incorporated into the plans for animals to move below the high-speed and commuter rail tracks, the adjacent freight railroad tracks and nearby highways.

A long time coming

It has taken years for the rail authority to move from its initial choice in 2008 of the San Jose/Gilroy/Pacheco Pass corridor as the preferred option over the Altamont Pass — and the need for another bridge over the San Francisco Bay — for trains heading out of San Francisco to the San Joaquin Valley.

“We started … on this project section in 2009, so we have been at this for 13 years,” said Boris Lipkin, Northern California regional director for the rail agency.

“In comparison to the other alternatives, the preferred alternative … has substantial benefits. A lot of that is based on using an existing rail corridor (between San Jose and Gilroy), so we’re not having impacts from having to acquire and develop a new rail line,” Lipkin said.

“It has the fewest displacements, the fewest impacts on wetlands and habitats, parks as well,” he added. “It has the lowest capital cost, and importantly we have that joint benefit of allowing for electrified Caltrain service to south San Jose and south Santa Clara County.”

Rail Authority CEO Brian Kelly noted that over the past two years, the agency has substantially expanded the sections of the statewide rail project that have been environmentally certified from the initial 119 miles now under construction in the Valley from north of Madera to northwest of Bakersfield.

Thursday’s vote, he said, bolsters the certifications and route decisions to span a continuous stretch from the Bay Area through the San Joaquin Valley into Palmdale, in Los Angeles County, as well as a short span from Burbank to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

“We have more work to do in Southern California (and) we need to finish the stretch into San Francisco,” Kelly said. “But it is an astonishing accomplishment in a relatively short amount of time.”