The California Department of Transportation has authorized $690 million in funding, allowing 32 major transportation projects to move forward a year ahead of schedule.
The projects cover pavement repairs, bridge upgrades and replacements, and the installation of traffic management systems designed to reduce roadway congestion.
The projects are part of a list Caltrans gave to the CTC, which CTC approved at its August meeting.
The United States has been waiting to hear from the White House on President Donald Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan. States like California, however, are not waiting.
“The needs in California are great and we are not waiting for the funding to come in. The time to get to work is now and we are lining up the projects,” said Malcolm Dougherty, Caltrans Director.
The funding will come from Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) and the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. SB 1 provides an ongoing funding increase of approximately $1.8 billion annually for the maintenance and rehabilitation of the state highway system, including $400 million specifically for bridges and culverts. SB 1 funds will enable Caltrans to fix more than 17,000 lane miles of pavement, 500 bridges and 55,000 culverts by 2027. Caltrans will also fix 7,700 traffic operating systems, like ramp meters, traffic cameras and electric highway message boards, that help reduce highway congestion. When this work is finished, 98 percent of pavement on state facilities [??] will be in good or fair condition, up from 85 percent today.
The new projects follow the $285 million in existing highway repair projects announced earlier in July.
