California High-Speed Rail Completes Its Ninth Structure in 2025

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has completed the Hanford Armona Road grade separation in Kings County, opening the structure to traffic less than a year after work began.

The project marks the ninth structure completed in 2025 and the third in Kings County alone, contributing to a total of 58 completed structures across the Central Valley.

Located east of Hanford between State Route 43 and 7th Avenue, the new bridge carries vehicles over the future high-speed rail corridor. Measuring 209 feet in length and 80 feet in width, the structure removes an existing at-grade crossing to improve road safety and prepare the route for future rail operations.

Construction began in January 2025 and involved 1,622 cubic yards of concrete, 385,515 pounds of steel, and 24 pre-cast concrete girders manufactured by the Dragados-Flatiron Joint Venture. The site sits less than a mile south of the Hanford Viaduct, the largest active construction project along the route.

Ben Ruiz, Director of Infrastructure Delivery at the Authority said:

We are working steadfastly to complete all civil structures and grade separations by the end of next year. Thanks to collaboration between our team and the contractor, we were able to complete Hanford Armona Road in less than a year, allowing us to shift focus on other remaining structures in Kings County, improving safety throughout the county overall.

The Hanford Armona Road project is part of a wider programme of grade separations across the Central Valley, designed to separate road and pedestrian traffic from existing freight rail and the future high-speed rail line. These separations reduce potential collisions, improve traffic flow, and limit vehicle idling near rail crossings.

This year alone, CHSRA has completed eight other grade separation projects, including Whitley Avenue Underpass and Fargo Avenue in Kings County, Avenue 17 in Madera County, and the Tulare Street underpass in Fresno, which reconnected the city’s downtown and Chinatown districts.

Across the 171-mile section under design and construction from Merced to Bakersfield, more than 70 miles of guideway and 58 structures are now complete, with over 30 more underway in Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties.

Statewide, 463 miles of the planned 494-mile route between San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim have been environmentally cleared. The project has supported more than 16,100 jobs since construction began, with up to 1,700 workers active on sites each day—most from the Central Valley.