The Silicon Valley Rapid Transit (SVRT) Project will extend the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System south from Fremont to the cities of Milpitas, San Jose, and Santa Clara, California. The 16.3-mile extension will connect the Silicon Valley communities to the San Francisco Bay Area cities served by BART. Modern automated 10-car trains currently serve 43 BART stations over a 104-mile alignment.

The SVRT extension will include six passenger stations, three above and three below ground, a maintenance and vehicle storage facility, and the upgrading of the existing BART "core system" to permit integration of the SVRT extension into the existing rapid transit system. The alignment is comprised of 11 miles of at-grade, elevated, and cut-and-cover track, and a 5-mile tunnel segment consisting of twin bores and a cut-and-cover crossover structure.

Wong is serving as the lead Joint Venture Partner responsible for design and integration of systems for the extension. The advanced systems elements include traction power, communications, automatic train control, tunnel emergency ventilation, power distribution, and fire/life safety systems. The design services also include procurement of trackwork-related materials such as running rail, contact rail system equipment, direct fixation fasteners, and special trackwork.

The focus of the systems design is on delivering cost-effective solutions while maintaining compatibility with the existing 104-mile system. Previously, Wong assisted BART in assessing the impacts of the new extension on the BART core system. The impacts are being mitigated in the current design with special attention to interfaces to the BART Operations Control System.

Key features of the systems design include:

• Traction Power System. Power is delivered to the vehicles over a 1000Vdc contact rail system supplied by 12 traction power substations. To reduce costs, high voltage substations are being designed to enable purchasing power from the utility at 115 kV with distribution to substations over a 34.5 kV subtransmission system.
  
  
• Communication Systems include SCADA, 800 MHz radio, telephone systems, Blue Light Stations, platform trip stations, intrusion detection, and CCTV. The innovative design focuses on compatibility with the existing BART systems while utilizing open architecture to accommodate future generations of hardware.
  
  
• Train Control System is a fully automatic system providing for operational flexibility. The design will accommodate future implementation of the advanced communications based train control system being developed by BART.