Love the new format Jason! I am also quite impressed at the level of progress over the last month and 2/3rds of a month, particularly at Cross Creek. Very excited to see them finally getting around to spanning the final gap at the Hanford station.
Honestly, I like your new format! It’s exciting to see that Avenue 88 looks largely complete, I’m super happy to see the Cross Creek Viaduct mostly completed. But, there’s still a long way to go! I’m also super excited to see that Hanford-Armona Road overpass about ready to build the bridge. The only negative comment I have is that I suspect that the Hanford Viaduct will be the last structure delivered for completion of HSR!
I think Hanford will catch up, they're getting pretty close to having the columns done, then the beams will go up fast, and the deck over the remaining beams should only take a month or three. There's other structures that have a lot longer to go, I think.
@@CATDRL2 I had another busy at work and I couldn't spend much time on it. I already know what I want to do differently next time. For the leveling, I'm just simply doing normalization. It was quick and easy but on some of the clips when I said a particularly loud word, the rest of the sentence was kind of quiet. Next time I'm going to explore running it through the compressor that's in DaVinci
Jason, I think the narration was really good, particularly for a first shot at it, and there was some interesting progress that you noted, and some additional stuff I noticed: At Deer Creek, there's the start of deck rebar on the segment that already had beams visible about 1:14 and at 1:39 the pier caps that were previously wrapped up to cure have been unwrapped and it looks like maybe they're removing the formwork. Only one more pier cap needs to be formed, the one back near the center of the screen at 1:12 or 1:13 No clue why that one's lagging, but it doesn't even have formwork for the pier cap yet--something to watch out for next time, as well as if we see the beams go over the watercourse on the newly unwrapped northern piers by the next time you're back. The train shot was really cool, I was wondering why you were starting to turn the drone and if it was to catch a train coming up from behind, and it was! Some interestingly long tank cars in that consist. Tule River is looking good, I think the "intrusion wall" at 6:07 is actually a forming wall for a vertical mechanically stabilized earth ramp leading up onto the viaduct. I think there's something like that at Conejo and Wasco Viaducts, too? It's coming along well, though, once it's poured, maybe we'll see that earthwork start. Still a fair bit to do with the rebar for connecting the tub girder sections at the north and south ends to the main pergola deck in the middle, and the road crossing the north end embankment's future place at about 7:00 needs to be realigned onto its final alignment, but lots of progress even if there's probably still a year to go here (note the lack of start to placing the main deck for the tracks over the beams yet, compared to Conejo Viaduct last spring and Conejo's status today). At Highway 137 at 8:47, good to see it paved, and looks like another embankment wing wall has been formed. The two are on opposite sides of the tracks, I don't know if all four spots will get a wing wall, or if the crossing will only be roughly rotationally symmetric with just the walls formed here, east side on the south side of the crossing, west side on the north side of the crossing. We'll see in a month or two, probably! Cross Creek has definitely made huge strides. The north end abutment looks like it's still being formed, and the south end abutment doesn't have beams from it to the first pier either, but they have plenty of placed beams to start working on deck forming on while they finish those two off and place the remaining few beams. This went from lagging behind Deer Creek to feeling like it might actually be shooting ahead of it! At 15:00 at the SR43 crossing, AmpereBeep points out you can see pits excavated for possible pilings or other foundation structures for the road bridge--it'll be interesting to see in a month or so whether these start sprouting columns. Finally, Hanford at 19:00 has made some important progress in crossing the SJVRR. The north-side row of columns that was formwork and rebar in December is now complete, and the last row on the south side is now having formwork up, so in a another month the final columns should _finally_ be done, and ready for beams. They're preparing for beams by putting up the supporting formwork on four of the eight column rows that still remain to be spanned, visible on the northernmost and southernmost pair visible at 19:00 ! You can also see around 19:12 that the sidewall forming has made some progress, making the structure look a little cleaner overall on the areas where the deck has been poured for a while.
@@CATDRL2 as I put on my aluminum foil hat, I'm guessing that canal in that area is suffering the same fate as the one by Wasco. It is too small for the local irrigation district to care about and CHSR doesn't know what to do about it. As for those big power lines, there's no excuse for that. I don't know why that is taking so long.
I fully approve of the narration, perfect voice quality, and thank you for lowering the background music so we can hear you. That's important, and many don't take the time to edit that in.
The Tule River Viaduct is "tule" magnificent. Yes, it was awesome to catch the Amtrak on both passes. It would be even more spectacular if we could see the same guy taking this video from the blue car as he waves to us.
I'd like to see the full orbital view on some of the in-progress structures. I think there are some that are more interesting than others, but I like to see the related roadwork, detours, and realignments.
@@mb_1024 I'll sprinkle some more in. I remember all my first round, I did an orbit on every single overpass lol. I went from that to doing almost no orbits at all. Now I'm trying to swing it back towards the middle again :-)
Thank you for that update. I have already seen the first symbolically laid trackpanel. To what extent can your new government stop or delay the project after all?? It would be desirable that this project finally comes to an end. Greetings from Berlin/ Germany. Sven
There is sufficient money available to keep going for the next four years. By then test trains will be running over this initial route. Construction will be ongoing to complete the ends of the initial operating section to get to Merced and Bakersfield. After that station construction will have to be done. The real question is how difficult will it be to get the funds to get to San José to make connection with the electrified line to San Francisco. Los Angeles will come later. This is a VERY large project and will take time.
@@danielcarroll3358 Jooo, a HSR don´t build in one week. The German HSR between Hanover and Würzburg was under construction from 1973 to 1991. The distance was 371 km. A third of the route runs in tunnels.
Guten Tag, Sven. According to the CHSRA 2024 business plan and assuming that the Trump administration doesn't try and claw back the 3.1 billion dollars the Biden administration awarded the Authority in December 2023, the Authority has funding for the following (from north to south): single track the 119 miles (191.5 km.) currently under construction from Madera, CA to Poplar Avenue near Shafter, CA; double track from Poplar Avenue to North Bakersfield, CA (about 22 miles/35.4 km. I think); purchase six trainsets, the first two for testing and the remainder for actual service. The only funding source left to the Authority is from the state of California. To complete the 171 miles (275.2 km.) from Merced, CA to Bakersfield, CA with double tracking for the entire system will have to come from state revenue sources. The Authority has already been in consultation with Governor Newsom and the state legislative leaders for additional state funds beyond the 1 billion the Authority receives per year from California's cap and trade system.
@@danielcarroll3358 Based upon comments by Governor Newsom, Ian Choudri, and Arthur Sohikian, Executive Director of the High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Authority at the ceremony earlier this month in Fresno, CA announcing the beginning of track laying, the new plan is to proceed from Bakersfield, CA to Palmdale, CA to link up with Brightline West via the High Desert Corridor High Speed Rail Project between Palmdale and Victorville, CA. Another reason for this change could be cost. The 2024 project cost estimated by CHRSA for the San Jose to Merced Project section is approximately 22 billion dollars while the Bakersfield to Palmdale project section is estimated to cost approximately 17 billion.
The mud bog needs to have a high layer of fill earth on top to compact and squeeze the water out through drain lines; otherwise, that section of grade will be prone to sinking.
This is the only negative comment I have about the video: I believe the definitive line for the split screen should be more pronounced, as the soft edge makes it difficult to view. It feels as though the land is morphing into the other side, leading me to expect objects to appear. Having a clear line would eliminate that confusion. Again, this is just my opinion. However, after watching it for 10 minutes, I did start to get used to it.
@@CATDRL2 noted. I put it the same value that I normally put in my 1080 videos. It does seem a little softer now that I've switched to 4K. Maybe I'll put the softness to zero and see what happens :-)
@@CATDRL2 no. California has been subsidizing those for years before CHSR was realized. You see them a lot in areas near the edges of the lake bottom where the soil is a bit too dry or alkaline to do anything but grazing. They have been putting up huge fields on the west side of the valley in the area between Lemoore and Kettleman City. There's a funny story with the one that is in this video near Nevada Avenue. That solar field went up years ago. It used to come all the way up to 43. I bet it wasn't even finished for 2 years before they had to take out that big swath to make room for CHSR lol
@@jasondroninaround Oh no, it sounds like a SpaceX construction project at Boca Chica, where SpaceX spends missions building a structure only to tear it down a few months later for something else.
@@harutosunaa3881 from behind Allensworth all the way to and including the Tule River Viaduct was underwater for several months because of a 100-year flood we had back in the spring of 2023 that filled up old Tulare Lake to a higher level than it's been in ages. The entire time, the BNSF lines were above water and so will CHSR when it is finished. They just could not work on it for several months and there are some areas they still have not worked on.
Also, CP 2-3 is much bigger than CP 4. They have a lot more viaducts and overpasses to construct as well as more utility relocations. CP 1 also has a lot of utility relocations and complex construction schedules since Fresno will only allow a certain number of street closures at one time for construction.
@@CATDRL2 I know. The west side of the neighborhood is getting a frontage road kind of thing put in so the northernmost road can come in from 5 ½ Ave. I think the west side of the tracks is going to get a little extra road under the Waukena Ave overpass to access their neighborhood from Orange Ave.
@@jasondroninaround Yes, 5th to Orange, under the overpass. 5 1/2 to Niles, between the HSR ROW and the canal, and Niles to Newark, parallel to SR-43, as I understand it. Not ideal to have the neighborhood split like that, for sure, but there are some mitigations.
It's interesting that, with a few notable exceptions, the side-by-side videos show zero progress. When the federal funding is shut off (I'm guessing), what's coming next?
All of the side by sides do have progress, just some more that others. With the exception of my joke side by side at the Kern Irrigation District canal relocation, I do not make a side by side unless there have been changes since the last time I came through Deer Creek Viaduct: the major side by side was from last week's video where there is almost 2 months of work. In today's video, it was a playful comparison where there was only 1 week between the side by sides. That's why there does not seem to be a lot of work. If you look closely, they did put in a lot of rebar. Hanford Viaduct: still has changes but I agree that there was not nearly enough for how many weeks have passed :)
Loving the new narrator you hired. Not sure why he’s got something against drone pilots though. 😂
I like the new voice over format. It gives great information on what is going on. Nice job Jason!
Love the new format Jason! I am also quite impressed at the level of progress over the last month and 2/3rds of a month, particularly at Cross Creek. Very excited to see them finally getting around to spanning the final gap at the Hanford station.
Thank you, mr. Jason. I enjoyed this video!
‘Wondered where all that alfalfa was going.🐄🥛
Another great update; I like the narration!
Always, much to see!!!!
Honestly, I like your new format! It’s exciting to see that Avenue 88 looks largely complete, I’m super happy to see the Cross Creek Viaduct mostly completed.
But, there’s still a long way to go!
I’m also super excited to see that Hanford-Armona Road overpass about ready to build the bridge.
The only negative comment I have is that I suspect that the Hanford Viaduct will be the last structure delivered for completion of HSR!
I think Hanford will catch up, they're getting pretty close to having the columns done, then the beams will go up fast, and the deck over the remaining beams should only take a month or three. There's other structures that have a lot longer to go, I think.
That was excellent for your first narration video. Kudos to you for the editing, music, and audio quality. Many others falter on their first attempt.
@@CATDRL2 I had another busy at work and I couldn't spend much time on it. I already know what I want to do differently next time. For the leveling, I'm just simply doing normalization. It was quick and easy but on some of the clips when I said a particularly loud word, the rest of the sentence was kind of quiet. Next time I'm going to explore running it through the compressor that's in DaVinci
Jason,
I think the narration was really good, particularly for a first shot at it, and there was some interesting progress that you noted, and some additional stuff I noticed:
At Deer Creek, there's the start of deck rebar on the segment that already had beams visible about 1:14 and at 1:39 the pier caps that were previously wrapped up to cure have been unwrapped and it looks like maybe they're removing the formwork. Only one more pier cap needs to be formed, the one back near the center of the screen at 1:12 or 1:13 No clue why that one's lagging, but it doesn't even have formwork for the pier cap yet--something to watch out for next time, as well as if we see the beams go over the watercourse on the newly unwrapped northern piers by the next time you're back.
The train shot was really cool, I was wondering why you were starting to turn the drone and if it was to catch a train coming up from behind, and it was! Some interestingly long tank cars in that consist.
Tule River is looking good, I think the "intrusion wall" at 6:07 is actually a forming wall for a vertical mechanically stabilized earth ramp leading up onto the viaduct. I think there's something like that at Conejo and Wasco Viaducts, too? It's coming along well, though, once it's poured, maybe we'll see that earthwork start. Still a fair bit to do with the rebar for connecting the tub girder sections at the north and south ends to the main pergola deck in the middle, and the road crossing the north end embankment's future place at about 7:00 needs to be realigned onto its final alignment, but lots of progress even if there's probably still a year to go here (note the lack of start to placing the main deck for the tracks over the beams yet, compared to Conejo Viaduct last spring and Conejo's status today).
At Highway 137 at 8:47, good to see it paved, and looks like another embankment wing wall has been formed. The two are on opposite sides of the tracks, I don't know if all four spots will get a wing wall, or if the crossing will only be roughly rotationally symmetric with just the walls formed here, east side on the south side of the crossing, west side on the north side of the crossing. We'll see in a month or two, probably!
Cross Creek has definitely made huge strides. The north end abutment looks like it's still being formed, and the south end abutment doesn't have beams from it to the first pier either, but they have plenty of placed beams to start working on deck forming on while they finish those two off and place the remaining few beams. This went from lagging behind Deer Creek to feeling like it might actually be shooting ahead of it!
At 15:00 at the SR43 crossing, AmpereBeep points out you can see pits excavated for possible pilings or other foundation structures for the road bridge--it'll be interesting to see in a month or so whether these start sprouting columns.
Finally, Hanford at 19:00 has made some important progress in crossing the SJVRR. The north-side row of columns that was formwork and rebar in December is now complete, and the last row on the south side is now having formwork up, so in a another month the final columns should _finally_ be done, and ready for beams. They're preparing for beams by putting up the supporting formwork on four of the eight column rows that still remain to be spanned, visible on the northernmost and southernmost pair visible at 19:00 ! You can also see around 19:12 that the sidewall forming has made some progress, making the structure look a little cleaner overall on the areas where the deck has been poured for a while.
This was an incredibly insightful read.
Can always appreciate you evaluating the footage in the video, since you seem to be one of the most knowledgeable around here.
The utility relocation for the Idaho overpass was amusing, especially for the tower right in the middle of the track path.
@@CATDRL2 as I put on my aluminum foil hat, I'm guessing that canal in that area is suffering the same fate as the one by Wasco. It is too small for the local irrigation district to care about and CHSR doesn't know what to do about it. As for those big power lines, there's no excuse for that. I don't know why that is taking so long.
I fully approve of the narration, perfect voice quality, and thank you for lowering the background music so we can hear you. That's important, and many don't take the time to edit that in.
Great video....the music is hittin!
Why is there a small section with asphalt or some dark material right after the cross creek viaduct at 13:21?
It's likely geotextile, a permeable fabric material that's used to help keep soil in place.
The Tule River Viaduct is "tule" magnificent. Yes, it was awesome to catch the Amtrak on both passes. It would be even more spectacular if we could see the same guy taking this video from the blue car as he waves to us.
I'd like to see the full orbital view on some of the in-progress structures. I think there are some that are more interesting than others, but I like to see the related roadwork, detours, and realignments.
@@mb_1024 I'll sprinkle some more in. I remember all my first round, I did an orbit on every single overpass lol. I went from that to doing almost no orbits at all. Now I'm trying to swing it back towards the middle again :-)
@@jasondroninaround That’s fine with me too; I do enjoy the video, music, and your voice. During the orbits, I can drink some coffee.
I fast forward through the orbits
@@RobboSez If I did that, I would get sick.🤮
Thank you for that update. I have already seen the first symbolically laid trackpanel. To what extent can your new government stop or delay the project after all?? It would be desirable that this project finally comes to an end. Greetings from Berlin/ Germany. Sven
There is sufficient money available to keep going for the next four years. By then test trains will be running over this initial route. Construction will be ongoing to complete the ends of the initial operating section to get to Merced and Bakersfield. After that station construction will have to be done. The real question is how difficult will it be to get the funds to get to San José to make connection with the electrified line to San Francisco. Los Angeles will come later. This is a VERY large project and will take time.
@@danielcarroll3358 Jooo, a HSR don´t build in one week. The German HSR between Hanover and Würzburg was under construction from 1973 to 1991. The distance was 371 km. A third of the route runs in tunnels.
Guten Tag, Sven. According to the CHSRA 2024 business plan and assuming that the Trump administration doesn't try and claw back the 3.1 billion dollars the Biden administration awarded the Authority in December 2023, the Authority has funding for the following (from north to south): single track the 119 miles (191.5 km.) currently under construction from Madera, CA to Poplar Avenue near Shafter, CA; double track from Poplar Avenue to North Bakersfield, CA (about 22 miles/35.4 km. I think); purchase six trainsets, the first two for testing and the remainder for actual service. The only funding source left to the Authority is from the state of California. To complete the 171 miles (275.2 km.) from Merced, CA to Bakersfield, CA with double tracking for the entire system will have to come from state revenue sources. The Authority has already been in consultation with Governor Newsom and the state legislative leaders for additional state funds beyond the 1 billion the Authority receives per year from California's cap and trade system.
@@danielcarroll3358 Based upon comments by Governor Newsom, Ian Choudri, and Arthur Sohikian, Executive Director of the High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Authority at the ceremony earlier this month in Fresno, CA announcing the beginning of track laying, the new plan is to proceed from Bakersfield, CA to Palmdale, CA to link up with Brightline West via the High Desert Corridor High Speed Rail Project between Palmdale and Victorville, CA. Another reason for this change could be cost. The 2024 project cost estimated by CHRSA for the San Jose to Merced Project section is approximately 22 billion dollars while the Bakersfield to Palmdale project section is estimated to cost approximately 17 billion.
You have a lovely voice :)
I like the narration!
The Handford viaduct and the future Tulare station is impressive. Yes, I also miss the Southern Pacific, around her it's just Union and BNSF now.
The mud bog needs to have a high layer of fill earth on top to compact and squeeze the water out through drain lines; otherwise, that section of grade will be prone to sinking.
@@CATDRL2 Yes there's going to be a lot of pumping someday 😁
The Highway 43 overpass will be spectacular, but the viaducts over the mainline are better.
Get your box of almonds ready! We are going to flyyyyyyy!
This is the only negative comment I have about the video: I believe the definitive line for the split screen should be more pronounced, as the soft edge makes it difficult to view. It feels as though the land is morphing into the other side, leading me to expect objects to appear. Having a clear line would eliminate that confusion. Again, this is just my opinion. However, after watching it for 10 minutes, I did start to get used to it.
@@CATDRL2 noted. I put it the same value that I normally put in my 1080 videos. It does seem a little softer now that I've switched to 4K. Maybe I'll put the softness to zero and see what happens :-)
Are the fields of solar panels part of the train project?
@@CATDRL2 no. California has been subsidizing those for years before CHSR was realized. You see them a lot in areas near the edges of the lake bottom where the soil is a bit too dry or alkaline to do anything but grazing. They have been putting up huge fields on the west side of the valley in the area between Lemoore and Kettleman City.
There's a funny story with the one that is in this video near Nevada Avenue. That solar field went up years ago. It used to come all the way up to 43. I bet it wasn't even finished for 2 years before they had to take out that big swath to make room for CHSR lol
@@jasondroninaround Oh no, it sounds like a SpaceX construction project at Boca Chica, where SpaceX spends missions building a structure only to tear it down a few months later for something else.
Why is CP2-3 so far behind compared to CP4?
@@harutosunaa3881 from behind Allensworth all the way to and including the Tule River Viaduct was underwater for several months because of a 100-year flood we had back in the spring of 2023 that filled up old Tulare Lake to a higher level than it's been in ages. The entire time, the BNSF lines were above water and so will CHSR when it is finished. They just could not work on it for several months and there are some areas they still have not worked on.
Also, CP 2-3 is much bigger than CP 4. They have a lot more viaducts and overpasses to construct as well as more utility relocations. CP 1 also has a lot of utility relocations and complex construction schedules since Fresno will only allow a certain number of street closures at one time for construction.
The village of Niles is being destroyed by splitting it up like that.
@@CATDRL2 I know. The west side of the neighborhood is getting a frontage road kind of thing put in so the northernmost road can come in from 5 ½ Ave. I think the west side of the tracks is going to get a little extra road under the Waukena Ave overpass to access their neighborhood from Orange Ave.
@@jasondroninaround Yes, 5th to Orange, under the overpass. 5 1/2 to Niles, between the HSR ROW and the canal, and Niles to Newark, parallel to SR-43, as I understand it. Not ideal to have the neighborhood split like that, for sure, but there are some mitigations.
It's interesting that, with a few notable exceptions, the side-by-side videos show zero progress. When the federal funding is shut off (I'm guessing), what's coming next?
All of the side by sides do have progress, just some more that others. With the exception of my joke side by side at the Kern Irrigation District canal relocation, I do not make a side by side unless there have been changes since the last time I came through
Deer Creek Viaduct: the major side by side was from last week's video where there is almost 2 months of work. In today's video, it was a playful comparison where there was only 1 week between the side by sides. That's why there does not seem to be a lot of work. If you look closely, they did put in a lot of rebar.
Hanford Viaduct: still has changes but I agree that there was not nearly enough for how many weeks have passed :)
It continues with state funding, which will get this section done and trains running. Also, there's progress if you actually look.
booondoggle unlimited
Carbrain?
Yet here you are, commenting on a "boondoggle."