California is preparing to lay tracks for the first segment of its California High Speed Rail Authority project, which will connect San Francisco and Los Angeles with high-speed rail.

The state’s finance committee approved a request by the CHSRA to spend $2.6 billion to lay its first track in California’s Central Valley. That approval will allow the CHSRA to ask the state’s Treasurer’s office to sell some of the $10 million in bonds approved by California voters in 2008.

If that funding comes through, the rail authority will move forward with 29 miles of track through the Central Valley, a largely agricultural region. The project would likely be completed in August 2019.

The rail will eventually work its way to Los Angeles County. Voters approved the project in 2008 as a three-way partnership between the state, the federal government and private investments. Federal funding may fall through, however. A spokesperson for CHSRA has said the project will move forward regardless of federal input.