Dive summary:

• Engineers for the State of California figured the first, 28-mile section of a high-speed rail network would come in at someplace between $1.23 billion and $1.8 billion, but they got a surprise when they opened the envelope from a consortium of three U.S. companies.
• The joint venture by Tutor Perini Corp., Zachry Construction Corp. and Parsons Corp. came in at $985,142,530 – and that was deemed the best deal for the state when technical expertise and financial considerations were combined.
• All four competing bids were above $1 billion.

From the article:

Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the [California High-Speed Rail Authority], said a contract proposal will be presented to the agency's board within weeks in anticipation of awarding a contract in time for construction to begin this summer. ...