California’s bullet train planners Wednesday cracked open the flood gates for bidders expected to rush in seeking billions of dollars in construction work projected to start next year.

Requests for expressions of interest were sent to thousands of large and small contractors worldwide that may want a piece of the first phase of the $43-billion network that is supposed to connect the Bay Area and Southern California with trains running up to 220 mph.

Officials portrayed Wednesday’s announcement as a milestone for one of the largest public works project in the nation’s history, an endeavor that could ultimately create hundreds of thousands of construction and other jobs.
  
Work on the first $5.5-billion section of track, from north of Fresno to the outskirts of Bakersfield, is scheduled to begin late next year. Wednesday’s solicitations were a step toward issuing contracts for that work.

A Pacoima motorist who fell asleep behind the wheel while stopped on railroad tracks Thursday survived after a Union Pacific cargo train struck and severed his vehicle in half.

The collision occurred at 1:15 a.m. at the train track crossing on San Fernando Road and Branford Street in Pacoima.

The driver, an elderly man, walked away without any injuries and was arrested on site on suspicion of drunk driving, said Sgt. Dave Mascarenas of the Los Angeles Police Department Valley Traffic division.

The man drove his Hyundai Sonata past the caution arm of the train tracks and a 59-car train struck the front of the car, ripping it in half and causing the rear half with the driver inside to spin 180 degrees, Mascarenas said.

The force of the accident caused the tracks underneath the train to bend and buckle all the way to its destination in Sylmar, he said.

Members of California’s High-Speed Rail Authority board would be subject to stricter rules for disclosing and avoiding potential conflicts of interest under legislation pending in both the state Assembly and Senate.

Similar bills written recently by Assemblyman Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) and Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) would require board members in charge of a proposed $43-billion bullet train project to follow procedures that now apply to the Coastal Commission, the Public Utilities Commission and other key state panels.

Specifically, board members would have to declare potential conflicts in plain language before a board discussion begins on any matter in which they have a disqualifying financial interest. They also would have to leave the room during deliberations on the matter.

The proposals follow a report in The Times that rail board chairman Curt Pringle and former member Richard Katz received tens of thousands of dollars from consulting clients with financial interests in the bullet train project. The pair had not always recognized or publicly declared potential conflicts during board discussions, The Times reported. Both officials said they had not mixed public duties with their private business interests.

The paper also found that, due to an oversight, the high-speed rail board was not included in a 2002 state law intended to make it easier for the public to know when officials on state panels have potential conflicts. The proposed bills, which require a two-thirds vote of each house for approval, would correct the omission.

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Orange County transportation officials Thursday sought to change their funding guidelines to resolve whether a mega transit center planned for Anaheim can receive almost $100 million in sales tax revenue that has been earmarked for the project.

A seven-member committee of the Orange County Transportation Authority also expressed support for the $184-million Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, which has been on the drawing board almost 25 years.

Committee members took action in response to questions raised at their meeting by Orange County Supervisor and OCTA board member Shawn Nelson, who said the so-called ARTIC station is not qualified to receive money from Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax to pay for transportation projects.

Nelson contends that under the measure’s guidelines, funds can be used only to pay for the modification of existing Metrolink stations, not construction of new ones elsewhere. In addition, he said, projects at Metrolink facilities that are financed by Measure M must accommodate planned high-speed rail systems, such as the California bullet train.

“This is not infrastructure for high-speed rail. It is now called a stand-alone station,” said Nelson, who is not a committee member. “There was a rush to get ARTIC funded because of high-speed rail. But Anaheim is no longer in the first leg of the project."

The first tracks are now slated for the Central Valley.

"The question now is: Will there ever be a leg of high-speed rail” to the city?" Nelson said.

A Delta Airlines flight that left Los Angeles International Airport for Kona, Hawaii, was forced to return to LAX on Tuesday afternoon after experiencing hydraulic problems, federal officials said.

Flight 1299 landed at LAX without problems at 4:47 p.m., said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Boeing 757 had about 185 passengers and crew members.

Gregor told The Times that the pilot declared an emergency and decided to return to LAX. No additional details were available.

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The California Highway Patrol reported numerous stranded vehicles and minor accidents along Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles late Sunday as falling snow and sleet shut down the Grapevine section of the freeway indefinitely.

Near Magic Mountain, there were reports of multiple cars stuck on the roadway, said CHP Officer Krystal Carter.

State highways 14 and 58 remained open as alternative routes between the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles. But officials said those roads were clogging up with traffic and should be avoided.

“The best bet, if you can, is to hunker down for the night” and avoid traveling through mountain areas, Carter said. “It’s pretty bad ... and it’s going to get worse as the night progresses” and temperatures drop.

The I-5 closure stretched from near Castaic Lake, at the north end of the Santa Clarita Valley, over the mountains to the bottom of the Grapevine, south of Bakersfield. Carter said the road may not reopen until Monday. 

A chief concern for the CHP was getting stranded motorists to safety, Carter said.

More snow-related problems were reported in the Cajon Pass area of San Bernardino County. CHP units were escorting vehicles along I-15 from the I-215 interchange to the Hesperia area. The snow was aggravating traffic delays for holiday travelers returning from Las Vegas.

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Photo: The red taillights of stopped cars glow on northbound Interstate 5 near Castaic after heavy snow closed the major roadway several miles north of this point. Credit: Mike Meadows / Associated Press

Interstate 15 between Baker and the Nevada state line, which had been closed this morning because of snow and ice, has reopened, but Caltrans escorts are still running on the southbound lanes, officials said.

The highway, which had been shut down at 2 a.m., was reopened in both directions at 7:20 a.m., said a California Highway Patrol dispatcher.

The escorts are helping to keep the roadway clear of ice for motorists.

But it won't be long before it warms up and the escorts will no longer be necessary, the dispatcher said.

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Despite new travel requirements, more than 2.3 million Americans reentering the country by land or sea from Mexico or Canada failed to produce a passport, birth certificate or other secure document to establish identity and nationality, a government review has found.

Most people, including about 500,000 in California, were still allowed to pass through ports of entry without the approved documents or without being transferred to a secondary inspection post for a more in-depth examination, according to the report by the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security.

Many travelers were allowed to pass after undergoing extensive questioning and producing at least a driver's license, the report found. Overall, 96% of travelers arriving at the 39 busiest land ports complied with the new law, which took effect in June 2009.

The procedure for processing those without the required documents also needs to be more precise and implemented across the board, the report said.

Despite these findings, the audit concluded that if all those who skirted the rules were referred to a secondary inspection, which is not currently required, the agency would not have the necessary staffing and infrastructure to handle the resulting increase in workload.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agrees with the findings and plans on following the inspector general’s recommendations, said Stephanie Malin, a spokesperson for the agency.

Dozens of Southern California flights to the East Coast have been canceled as blizzard conditions engulf a wide swath from the Carolinas to Massachusetts. 

Delta canceled all flights to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport; American Airlines scrapped 15 flights to Boston, New York, Newark and Washington, D.C.; United canceled six flights to the same cities; and Jet Blue reported many East Coast flights delayed or canceled, according to LAX spokesman Harold Johnson in an interview shortly after noon on Sunday.

More flights were expected to be canceled as the day progressed, and travelers were advised to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

-- Garrett Therolf

Photo: Snow falls on the east side of Manhattan on Dec. 26, 2010. Credit: Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images

A rain-related power outage is causing delays on the Gold Line light rail between Pasadena and East Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.

A section of the Gold Line suffered a power outage Saturday night, and trains were being forced to share only one track Sunday, running about 5 miles per hour between the Del Mar station in Pasadena and the Southwest Museum station in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Gold Line trains are running every 30 minutes, the agency said.

Crews are hoping to correct the problem by Monday. Up-to-date information can be found at the MTA's website and Twitter page.

-- Corina Knoll and Rong-Gong Lin II