The pandemic caused several setbacks for the project, Kelly wrote. Among them: a delay in procuring rights of way due to limited hours at courts, the need to quarantine workers if they were exposed to coronavirus, a delay in signing track and systems contracts, and the loss of roughly $288 million in revenue expected from the state’s cap-and-trade program designed to reduce carbon emissions.

Construction costs for the Central Valley segment will jump $330 million and officials are budgeting an extra $1 billion in contingency money, bringing the total cost to $13.8 billion.