Silicon Valley BART extension hits construction milestone

Transportation officials overseeing the multibillion-dollar Silicon Valley BART extension are celebrating an early construction milestone in bringing the rapid transit service to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara. Workers in recent weeks completed excavating and reinforcing an 83-foot-deep hole on a former rail yard property nearby PayPal Park. The shaft will serve as the launch point for the massive boring machine that will drill out the 5-mile tunnel made to house the new BART tracks. The $12.7 billion public works project overseen by VTA will eventually add four new BART stations: three in San Jose and one in Santa Clara. In the works for more than a decade, the effort has faced delays, ballooning costs and a series of controversies, including pushback against its single tunnel design.

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