FONTANA >> A steel rebar manufacturing company is among the first economic beneficiaries of the state’s high-speed rail project.

Martinez Steel, a 19-year-old family-owned company here, has been hired by the California High Speed Rail Authority to provide and install concrete reinforced rebar for the first 29-mile leg of the project from Madera County to Fresno County.

In recent weeks, the company has been mobilizing for a test piling involving the placing of a rebar cage 80 feet into the soil and filling it with sensors and concrete to test whether designs for bridges and viaducts are strong enough to carry high speed trains. The tests are expected to commence next week.

The company was started in 1994 by Debbie Martinez and her husband Joe Martinez. Company executives say the company went through a tough time in the recession and is now doing much better thanks to the project.

“Martinez Steel is very grateful for the opportunity that has arisen to have, as a small business, a substantial contract in this marketplace,” said Harry Williams, vice president of Martinez Steel.

“A lot has happened in this marketplace,” Williams said. “The developers came forward in this recession and came up with places to continue on, as prices were downturned, to make arrangements with banking and lending institutions to stimulate the state again with construction. Now, it’s all starting to come to fruition. The economy is picking up better than what we’ve seen in the last six and a half years.”

Officials with the California High Speed Rail Authority said they have an aggressive goal of hiring 30 percent of contractors from small businesses.

“I think it’s a credit for these firms to be participating so early in our project,” authority spokesman Robert Padilla said. “Currently we’re in the San Joaquin Valley, but small businesses will benefit statewide and provide the significant economic impact for the state. Small business does the majority of hiring in the state. These jobs will mean a significant increase in jobs for California and economic impact.”

Williams said his Martinez Steel is also working on bridges on the 91 Freeway and new subway tunnels in San Francisco.

High-speed rail, he said, “is a very large project for a disadvantaged or small business. It gives opportunities to smaller companies to participate in larger projects in the state.”

The first 29-mile stretch of the project is called Construction Package 1, or CP1. The first phase includes 12 grade separations, two viaducts, one tunnel, and a crossing over the San Joaquin River. Construction is underway, with completion anticipated in 2017.

Construction, when fully ramped up, will equate to 20,000 jobs annually for the first five years, and 34,000 jobs annually after that during later construction, according to the High Speed Rail Authority. Officials said once construction is complete, the authority is expected to employ 2,500 to 5,000 permanent employees for maintenance and ticketing.

Authority officials hope to complete the span of track from San Francisco to the Los Angeles Basin by 2029. Passengers would be able to make the trip in under three hours, traveling over 200 miles per hour.