CITY COUNCIL LOOKS TO BOLSTER HIGH DESERT RAIL ROUTE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - The City Council is considering paying consultants up to $100,000 for studies that would bolster Antelope Valley arguments that the High Desert should be part of a $25 billion high-speed rail system.

City officials are considering hiring two consulting firms to examine two possible rail alignments between Bakersfield and Sylmar - via Interstate 5 or through the Antelope Valley.

``We're very interested in promoting the Antelope Valley as a good alignment,'' John Brooks, Palmdale's transportation analyst, said Monday. ``We want to get more of an expert, outside review.''

City officials hope the studies will bolster their claims that an Antelope Valley route would serve a growing population and wouldn't require tunneling or raise as many environmental concerns as going over the Grapevine.

Palmdale officials have long said the tunneling work required for the Interstate 5 alignment is much riskier than state officials believe.

The two consultants being considered by the city are Transmetrics/Geodata, a European company with expertise in tunneling projects, and HLB Decision Economics/URS, a U.S. company that specializes in economic and risk factors.

The European company would estimate the variation in construction time and costs due to geological, geomechanical and hydrological hazards. The company would also perform an evaluation risks for the operation phase of the rail system, according to a city staff report.

HLB will provide a risk analysis of the data from Transmetrics/Geodata to determine the economic impact of changes in construction time and costs to determine risk factors, the staff report said.

The City Council will consider the contract with the consultants at a meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The proposed Antelope Valley alignment would follow Highway 58 from Bakersfield to Mojave, then would run south along the Union Pacific railroad tracks through Lancaster, Palmdale and Soledad Canyon.

At the southern end of the Antelope Valley, the route follows Soledad Canyon Road instead of the Antelope Valley Freeway. State officials determined the Soledad Canyon route probably would cost less than building a new rail line back and forth across the Antelope Valley Freeway.

State lawmakers are considering asking California voters in November to approve a $9 billion bond measure - up $3 billion from earlier estimates - to build the rail segments linking Los Angeles and San Francisco. The federal government is expected to put up billions more.

At its January meeting, the rail authority's board whittled the list of local rail options down to two possible alignments, dropping from consideration a route that would have followed the California Aqueduct over the Tehachapi Mountains and across the western Antelope Valley.

The board also reduced the Interstate 5 options from two to one, keeping the alignment that most closely follows the freeway. The other option, east of the freeway, would have required tunneling at earthquake fault lines.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority won't make a decision on which alignment to pursue until next year, after a draft environmental study on the project is completed. The study will give the rail authority more detailed information on environmental issues and costs for both alignments.