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 WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood awarded a $928.6 million grant to the California High-Speed Rail Authority for initial construction of California High-Speed Rail and awarded $150 million to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) for a high-speed rail project to increase the safety and reliability of Amtrak’s Wolverine and Blue Water services between Detroit and Chicago. Construction on both projects is expected to begin next year.

“California’s population will grow by 60 percent over the next 40 years,” said LaHood. “Investing in a green, job-creating high-speed rail network is less expensive and more practical than paying for all of the expansions to already congested highways and airports that would be necessary to accommodate the state’s projected population boom.”

The grant, when combined with voter-approved state support and previously-awarded federal dollars, will fund the construction of the first usable segment of the California system in the Central Valley. In the recently released business plan, the Authority embraced a phased implementation similar to those used for international systems. The first construction project will put more than 100,000 people to work during the next five years. Over the course of the network’s construction, more than 1 million jobs are expected to be created, and the economic activity spurred by the new system is expected to add up to 450,000 new non-high-speed rail jobs to the California economy by 2040.

The grant to MDOT will enable it to acquire ownership over much of the Chicago-Detroit/Pontiac High Speed Rail Corridor within the state of Michigan and pave the way for them to begin a track and signal improvement project between Detroit and Kalamazoo, Mich., in the spring of 2012. These improvements will allow for speeds up to 110 mph on 77 percent of Amtrak’s Wolverine and Blue Water services between Detroit and Chicago, resulting in a 30 minute reduction in travel times between those destinations. Previously announced FRA investments in the line include new continuously welded rail and ties, fiber optic lines, and infrastructure to support a positive train control system, rebuilding 180 highway-rail grade crossings and gates and flashers at 65 private highway-rail grade crossings.