Sacramento – SpecNews

Private firms question California high-speed rail funding

So the California High-Speed Rail Authority asked firms to suggest how to reduce costs, speed up construction and attract outside money.
Officials with the rail authority called the receipt of 36 responses a sign that the private sector is very interested.
The rail authority released the documents to The Associated Press under a Public Records Act request.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Businesses that might bid to build a high-speed rail network across California are questioning whether there will be enough government funding to complete the complex and ambitious project.
In response it received 36 submissions from firms including global construction and engineering giants AECOM, Siemens and Parsons.

For some construction workers, any thoughts of slacking off could soon seem rather quaint.
Monitoring activity across a large, complex construction site is particularly difficult because there are so many moving parts, and because the jobs being performed change frequently.
Once per day, several drones automatically patrol the Sacramento work site, collecting video footage.
The software developed by the University of Illinois team can show how different subcontracting teams are working together.
At the Sacramento project, video is being captured by a drone-operating company called ImageInFlight.