The California High Speed Rail Authority has released the identities of the five construction teams that have submitted qualifications to move on to the next phase in the competition for the contract to build a 60-mile extension of the as-of-yet-unbuilt high-speed rail line.

The project would be the second segment in the line that would eventually link southern and northern California. The qualification notice released Wednesday would extend the line from Fresno south to the Tulare-Kern County line near Bakersfield.

The firms are:

• California Rail Builders: Ferrovial Agroman U.S. Corp. and Granite Construction. Ferrovial is an American subsidiary of Ferrovial S.A., a Spanish company. Granite Construction is headquartered in Watsonville, Calif.
• Dragados/Flatiron/Shimmick:  Dragados USA Inc., is a subsidiary of Grupo ACS and Dragados S.A. of Spain. Flatiron West Inc. is based in San Marcos, Calif., and Shimmick Construction Co. is based in Oakland.
• Golden State Rail Partnership: OHL USA Inc., a subsidiary of Spain's Obrascón Huarte Lain S.A., and Samsung E&C America Inc.
• Skanska-Ames Joint Venture: Skanska USA Civil West California District Inc., and Ames Construction Inc. of Minnesota.
• Tutor-Perini/Zachry/Parsons: Tutor Perini Corp. of Sylmar, Calif.,  Zachry Construction of Texas and Pasadena-based Parsons Corp.

“These five, world class construction teams represent international interest in helping deliver California’s high speed rail project, a transformative investment in California’s future,” said Jeff Morales, CEO of the Authority in a press release. “The Authority will carefully review these applications and select the most highly qualified firms to submit proposals to design and build the next 60 miles of high speed rail.”

According to the Authority, they formally issued a request for qualifications in October and firms had until Dec. 13 to submit their statement of qualifications. The Authority will review the applications based on experience, technical competence, ability to perform and other factors and then will establish a list of the most highly-qualified firms. The qualified firms will then be eligible to submit formal design-build proposals in 2014.

The final design-build contract is expected to be worth approximately $1.5 to $2 billion.

If Tutor-Perini/Zachry/Parsons wins the contract, it will continue their work on the high-speed rail line. Earlier this summer, the consortium won the $985 million contract for the first 29-mile section of the statewide system between Madera and Fresno.

The first leg of the project is in the preconstruction and engineering phase.

In late November, opponents of California’s high-speed rail project have managed to stop the state from selling at least $8 billion in bonds to fund the initial construction phase after a California Superior judge made several rulings in their favor Nov. 25, but the High-Speed Rail Authority remains confident that the project will eventually be completed.