High-Speed Rail project bringing big changes to Fresno County as construction continues

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Work is well underway on the two-mile long Fresno trench which will take High-Speed Rail trains 45 feet underground and then through a highway 180 passageway. Crews are shoring up shoulder support for the project which will require a significant lane shift on 180-- possibly within a month.

"Well, what you're going to notice is a reconfiguration of the traffic patterns. So we are shifting one lane of the west bound traffic to the east bound lane," said Diana Gomez, HSR Regional Director.

Gomez is the Central Valley Regional Director for the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

The re-built Tuolumne Street bridge should be done in November. Though Tuolumne might not re-open at Fulton until 2017 due to the paving project restoring traffic to the Fulton Mall.

Progress means more buildings must come down.

"We're continuing to acquire right of way along the alignment, so you will continue to see some of the demos up and down the alignment. The Greyhound is probably the next most significant demolition that we'll be doing," said Gomez.

The old Greyhound Station served Fresno for over half a century but will soon be torn down. Greyhound has been sharing station space with Amtrak at the Santa Fe Depot since December.

The federal government has committed billions of dollars to High-Speed Rail.

US Transportation Department Secretary Anthony Foxx was in the Valley Monday to check on the progress of some of the projects.