Members of the China Railway Construction Corporation visited Fresno to take a tour of the area.
The group out of Beijing built the high speed rail system in China and is one of several bidders that want to bring their construction skills to the Golden State.
The meeting between Chinese delegation and Fresno officials took place at Precision Civil Engineering, one of the companies heavily invested in bringing the railway's maintenance yard to Fresno.
California Assemblyman, Henry T. Perea says, “Today we're giving them an overview of the project, timelines, the process, as well as what the Central Valley looks like.” Delegates got a good vantage point of that from inside the Fresno County Sheriff Department's Helicopter.
A spokesman for the Chinese says they liked what they saw. Jeffrey Chang says, “They understand Fresno is going to be the beginning or the end of the high speed rail project and the Chinese are very eager to get their foot hold here in North America.”
Delegates were also taken on a bus ride to tour potential manufacturing sites that are showcasing themselves as places to construct the materials that would be used on the project. Perea adds, “From our perspective, California tax dollars are being spent on this project and we want to make sure we're putting Californians back to work.”
The high speed rail authority should issue the contract to the winning bidder by the end of the year with the intention of breaking ground on the project during the start of 2012.
The visit is just the beginning of what will be a competitive bidding process. The Japanese have also visited California. The French, Germans and Spanish will likely be coming for a tour as well.
