BART takes initial step to Silicon Valley

A “notice to proceed” will be issued Monday by BART to a joint venture that will begin construction of the 5.4-mile Warm Springs line in Fremont necessary for the eventual extension to San Jose and Santa Clara.

The notice is being issued to Shimmick Construction Co. of Oakland and the Skanska USA Civil West California District Inc. of Riverside. The two construction firms will be responsible for the underground portion of the project.

“Construction to extend BART service 5.4 miles southward to a new station in Fremont’s Warm Springs District will begin this fall,” BART board president Thomas Blalock said in a statement. “I am pleased to announce that the final bid for this long-awaited phase of the extension is $136 million — 45 percent below our original engineer’s estimate of $249 million.”

A second bid for surface work on the project will be issued later this year.

When finished in 2014, the Warm Springs line will become the jumping-off point for the eventual 16.1-mile extension to downtown San Jose and into Santa Clara. That $6.1 billion construction project will be overseen by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which still plans to pursue it despite its current budget constraints.

The Silicon Valley extension is currently in the federal environmental review process to obtain environmental clearance that will clear it for final project design and construction.