When will CA High-Speed Rail road construction end in Fresno? Here’s the timeline
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Shaw Avenue overpass in Fresno is expected to reopen by the end of year.
- Herndon Avenue will close April 24–May 10 and work is expected to last until winter 2027.
- Fresno Street will be final underpass in downtown, closure begins Monday.
If California High-Speed Rail road construction work remains on schedule, Shaw Avenue near Highway 99 in Fresno will reopen by the end of the year — as an overpass.
Shaw Avenue will reopen without a busy Golden State Boulevard intersection or Union Pacific Railroad crossing. Instead, Shaw will sit far above the Golden State and the Union Pacific tracks, which will run parallel to the high-speed rail alignment.
“It’s going to improve east-west mobility. It’ll be safer,” said Augie Blancas, a California High-Speed Rail Authority spokesperson.
The Shaw overpass is one of multiple massive high-speed rail infrastructure jobs in progress in Fresno that the rail authority has to complete as part of readying the region for its track-laying phase.
The agency says it’s on schedule to begin laying tracks near the Shafter-Wasco area in the south San Joaquin Valley sometime this year. From there, track work will continue north to the Fresno region, where Blancas said the agency is nearing completion of all the civil structures needed for the project’s initial 119-mile segment.
Over the past year, the agency has reopened Belmont Avenue as an overpass and Cesar Chavez Boulevard (which is in the process of being renamed Ventura Avenue) and Tulare Street as downtown underpasses. Next week, the agency will begin work on its Fresno Street and Herndon Avenue underpasses. It’s still also working on grade separations at McKinley and Olive avenues.
It hasn’t been a quick path to get to this point for the rail authority. The Cesar Chavez and Tulare underpasses downtown both took years to complete, but the agency over the past year has laid out plans to tighten its construction schedules and keep its costs from skyrocketing further.
Despite the delays, Blancas said the project has resulted in new transportation infrastructure in Fresno that the city may not have received without high-speed rail.
The Bee toured high-speed rail construction sites in Fresno. Here’s what the agency is doing and what you can expect to see on streets that intersect the future bullet train’s route through the city.
Shaw Avenue overpass construction
In recent weeks, crews placed 36 concrete beams called girders atop the pillars that will hold Shaw Avenue above Golden State and the high-speed rail alignment. They used giant cranes to carry the girders, which can weigh up to 157,000 pounds each.
“It takes a lot of coordination and manpower just to control the girders,” said Blancas.
Shaw Avenue, which the rail authority says is used by more than 60,000 cars daily, will be built atop the girders to complete the east-west overpass. It will be more than 400 feet long and more than 100 feet wide. It will have three lanes traveling in each direction, plus bike lanes and sidewalks.
About 50 workers are present on the Shaw underpass site on any given day, including crane operators, carpenters, laborers and ironworkers, said Blancas.
Herndon Avenue underpass construction begins
The type of detour that motorists on Shaw have taken around the overpass work since last year will be recreated on Herndon Avenue, where work on an underpass is set to begin late next week.
The northbound Highway 99 exit on Herndon will close April 23-24. Herndon will close between Highway 99 and Weber Avenue from April 24 to May 10 (though schedules are subject to change) as the detour that allows drivers to bypass the coming underpass work is created.
That detour will run from Highway 99 to about Riverside Drive along the Marketplace at El Paseo shopping center. Golden State Boulevard will also be closed in the area.
Blancas said work on the Herndon underpass is expected to last until the winter of 2027.
He said the Herndon underpass, when finished, will look something like the Cesar Chavez and Tulare underpasses downtown. Drivers on the underpass will travel under bridges that will be built for the existing Union Pacific tracks and the future high-speed rail tracks.
As the alignment travels north from the underpass, the high-speed rail tracks will elevate and travel directly over the Union Pacific tracks before crossing into Madera County on the San Joaquin River Viaduct, a 4,700-foot, award-winning high-speed rail bridge over the river.
Fresno Street underpass construction closure starts next week
Fresno Street will close Monday from F Street in Chinatown to Broadway Street in downtown. H Street in downtown and G Street in Chinatown will also close near their Fresno Street intersections.
Though Fresno Street already travels below a Union Pacific bridge, the rail authority still has to build a high-speed rail bridge over the street. It is also going to turn G Street in Chinatown into a bridge over Fresno Street.
On the downtown side, H Street, which is a bridge over Fresno Street, will be lowered. A signal will be placed at the new intersection.
The rail authority expects to complete the Fresno Street work by June 2027, Blancas said.
This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 10:52 AM with the headline "When will CA High-Speed Rail road construction end in Fresno? Here’s the timeline."
