This chain restaurant was torn down to make way for high-speed rail. Now it’s coming back

Bethany Clough
·1 min read

You haven’t been able to get a Taco Bell chalupa anywhere near the corner of Herndon Avenue and Highway 99 in Fresno for a while.

The Taco Bell that used to sit on the southwest corner of Herndon Avenue and Golden State Boulevard was torn down to make way for high-speed rail construction. A nearby truck stop and gas station were also demolished.

But chalupas will soon be coming back to the neighborhood.

A Taco Bell is under construction just north of its old location. The new restaurant is north of Herndon now, on the west side of Golden State, between the southbound highway off ramp and Starbucks.

It will be a 2,530-square-foot building with a drive-thru. So close to the highway, it is likely to get plenty of traffic from travelers on Highway 99.

Taco Bell did not return a message seeking comment about when the fast-food, Mexican-inspired restaurant might open.

The building itself is up, though it appears there’s still many weeks or months left of work to do inside and around the restaurant.

It’s the second restaurant in the area to be displaced by high-speed rail and reopen nearby. The Starbucks in front of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites used to be located 200 yards to the south before it was torn down and later reopened in the new building.

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