Dive Brief:
- The California Transportation Commission has allocated $1.1 billion to transportation infrastructure throughout the Golden State, the agency announced Dec. 7, including $323 million from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well as $115 million from the state’s 2017 road repair law, known as Senate Bill 1.
- The funding will provide more than $300 million for projects across California that will make the state’s roads more climate resilient while investing in bike and pedestrian pathways and increasing natural disaster preparedness, according to Caltrans, the state’s department of transportation.
- “The funding will maintain and repair our roads while investing in public transit, bike and pedestrian pathways and climate-adaptation projects,” said Tony Tavares, Caltrans director, in a news release.
Dive Insight:
The CTC is a 13-member board charged with allocating funds for highway, passenger rail and transit construction, as well as improvement projects throughout the state. It holds the purse strings to Senate Bill 1, which provides $5 billion annually for transportation funding shared between state and local agencies.
Kyle Larkin, CEO of Watsonville, California-based Granite Construction, regularly highlights SB1 funding as critical to road-building projects on the firm’s investor calls.
In its latest funding announcement, CTC earmarked $309 million for 15 projects through the state’s Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program. That initiative is part of $15 billion allocated to clean transportation infrastructure in the state’s 2022-23 budget.
Some of the largest individual allotments highlighted by CTC include:
- $108 million for a project along Interstate 80 near the State Route 20 connector in Nevada and Placer counties that will replace and widen bridges, construct retaining walls in the median, rehabilitate drainage systems and install Roadway Weather Information Systems. Construction is estimated to begin in summer 2024.
- $51.4 million, including more than $45.5 million in federal IIJA funding and $630,000 in SB1 funding, in support of allocations toward roadway, guardrail and sign improvements on Route 162 from U.S. 101 to east of Poonkinney Road near Covelo in Mendocino County in Northern California.
- $50 million from LTCAP for State Route 37 Sears Point to Mare Island Improvement. The overall project aims at widening the route that passes through the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge to reduce congestion, improve public safety and enhance air quality.
- $50 million from LTCAP to the Coachella Valley Association of Governments for the Addressing Climate Change, Emergencies, and Sandstorms Resilience Improvement Project in Riverside County in Southern California.
- $40 million for work near Perris, east of Los Angeles, on Interstate 215. Work will rehabilitate pavement by repairing localized failure, grinding the roadway, and overlaying it with asphalt to extend its service life while improving ride quality.
- $25.8 million for a safety project along U.S. Highway 50 in the City of South Lake Tahoe. This project will install street lighting, pedestrian signals at mid-block crossings and signs. Construction is scheduled to begin summer 2026.
