TJPA board hears portal construction update, adopts budget and several contract extensions

The Transbay Joint Powers Authority board on June 12 received an update on the Downtown Rail Extension (the portal), including a revised schedule tied to funding timelines, and approved the agency's fiscal year 2025-26 operating and capital budgets and several contract and personnel actions.

Board members heard project director Alfonso Rodriguez say the program has begun preparatory right-of-way steps and is advancing design and procurement work ahead of construction, but that delays in securing the local share for construction funding are pushing the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) revenue-service target. "When we worked with the FTA in Entry to Engineering, we developed a cost estimate, a schedule, that includes all of our construction activity," Rodriguez said, and later noted the board's revised target revenue-service date is "02/1935," citing updated construction-cost and schedule assumptions shared with the FTA.

The board adopted a FY26 operating budget of $27,853,000, a capital budget of $143,449,861 and a debt-service budget of $27,682,594, and approved a five-year capital improvement plan for FY26–FY30. Chief Financial Officer Shima Mirza told directors the final numbers were…