Brightline West is getting ready for a major hiring event with the unions to build the massive high-speed rail spanning from Las Vegas Nevada to Southern California.
Tuesday, the Department of Labor met with trade unions of Nevada and California to discuss a monumental task, how can they hire 11,000 workers to start building the 218 miles of rail by this summer.
Three thousand construction and trade workers will be hired within Southern Nevada, according to Vince Saavedra, executive secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions. They’ll be responsible for the roughly 50-mile portion of the project from Las Vegas Boulevard at Warm Springs all the way to the Stateline Primm NV. (California border)
In December, the Biden administration approved $3 billion in funding for Brightline West. Saavedra and others note that funding put the wheels in motion to start construction.
Work will commence at the future Las Vegas station site and keep extending south to the border; a spokesperson for CA Building Trades said work will start “soon” at multiple sites at once. The work will eventually meet up with Nevada crews.
The goal is for completion by 2028, in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Commissioner Michael Naft explains how the project is more a reality than ever; many Southern Nevadan residents expressed doubt that the decades-long project would ever come to fruition.
Things like the entitlement process and land use issues for all the stations and the rail line are taken care of. Rights of way issues have been resolved. There’s so much groundwork that has gone into this project, that now it truly one step closer to putting a shovel in the ground.
“This is a momentous day for the workers of Southern Nevada, specifically members of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Union, as we announce our partnership with Brightline West and the California Building Trades to create our country’s first true high-speed rail system,” said Vince Saavedra, executive secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Union. “Our thousands of high-skilled members of our allied unions are standing at the ready to build this rail system. Nevada was built on the backs of our labor union members, and this historic rail project will continue that legacy. This project will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and bring millions of dollars into our economy, and I am proud of the role our unions will play in it.”
Are you interested in apprenticeship programs or a career in building and trade can learn more here Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions click on the link SNBTU or the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California click on the link SBCTC.
The system is projected to have nearly 1,000 permanent jobs for operations and maintenance.