Steel company, brewery ready to fight Rail Authority

Three years after being notified that a set of tracks would run through a strip of his company’s property, a Maderan is ready to take legal action against the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

According to Dan Riley, president of Steel Structures Inc. and Riley’s Brewing Company, he is prepared to take the high-speed rail to court in a civil trial. In December 2015, he lost an eminent domain dispute with the rail agency, and the railroad builders were granted permission to purchase the part of Riley’s property they wanted. Riley is unsure when construction will begin, as the development has been encountering delays.

Once laid, the tracks will block access to Riley’s property, he said, making it impossible to move the large steel structures he builds off the property and onto the road for hauling.

He said that would make it impossible to continue the steel-fabrication operations on the remainder of the 9.6-acre industrial site on 28777 Avenue 15 1/2, and would affect the brewery as well...