Clean California

Awardee: City of Tehachapi

Amount: $2,090,558

One-acre park in Tehachapi that will include landscaping, shade trees, shade structures, benches, waste bins, anti-littering signage, wayfinding signage, enhanced lighting, bike racks, picnic sites, a playground, and a soccer field. The City of Tehachapi's general plan lists neighborhoods that contain a physical feature as a center, such as this proposed park, which allows for different activities, to be a priority.

Awardee: Kern County

Amount: $3,023,637

The Mojave East Park project will directly benefit an underserved and disadvantaged community of 4,238 residents. Beautification and enhancement improvements will transform the entire area with new public facilities and features that offer change and options for recreation. The project site is the primary community social network and family center for families and individuals that have limited resources. The site is adjacent to Mojave High School and Mojave Elementary School and is accessible to residents and visitors through Business Highway 58. Features include replacement of restroom facilities, creation of a paved parking lot to serve the baseball field, a bio-infiltration basin to manage site stormwater, a new, larger shaded picnic pavilion, a new soccer field with renovated turf, landscape, and irrigation with emphasis on drought-tolerant, adaptive trees, shrubs and windbreak plantings, exercise stations with equipment, a renovated basketball court, and connected accessible pathways.

Awardee: City of Ridgecrest

Amount: $1,840,000

The Leroy Jackson Sports Complex Improvement project will implement infrastructure and non-infrastructure elements to create a beautiful, clean, and comfortable space for Ridgecrest residents to play, socialize, learn, relax, and exercise. The infrastructure improvements will include completing a landscape shaded walking trail with solar lights; installing shaded benches; adding a new Dial-a-ride stop; constructing new lights for the tennis courts; defining field edges with drought-tolerant landscaping; installing more trash, recycling, and compost bins; adding new drinking fountains with bottle fillers; and installing new educational signage. The non-infrastructure elements include a ribbon-cutting with a litter abatement education event, twice-annual community clean-up events, and a household hazardous waste collection event based at the park. These efforts will create a cleaner park and a cleaner community but will also create a cooler and more functional park that increases recreation opportunities and community pride.

Awardee: Fort Independence Indian Community

Amount: $5,000,000

Oak Creek Community Park project is the development and construction of a new public space located on the Fort Independence Indian Community's Reservation. This project is an improvement of public spaces in an underserved Tribal community. The park plans to embrace the Tribe's history and culture with green infrastructure, playgrounds, a sports court (with basketball and pickleball courts), restrooms, and paved trails to encourage moderate to high levels of physical activity and longer durations at the park. The sports field, amphitheater, pavilion, and family picnic and BBQ areas provide open and shaded places to share culture and foster community events like yoga classes, farmer's markets, Tribal ceremonies, and pow wows. The extensive trail system will include an interpretive trail with native grasses, tree canopy, plants and water to encourage biodiversity with community historical signs, and art installations by native artists. An access road and parking lot will allow future electric vehicle charging.

The Rosamond Interchange Xeriscape project will beautify the interchange of State Route 14 and Rosamond Boulevard within the unincorporated community of Rosamond in Kern County. A minimal water use xeriscape will replace the existing drought-sensitive landscape, reducing maintenance needs and enhancing worker safety. In coordination with the Community Vision Plan for the Rosamond Downtown Business District, Caltrans developed the project as a landscape art installation that will:

• Remove drought intolerant plants and a difficult to maintain and wasteful water irrigation system.
• Use an attractive blanket of rocks and boulders placed in artistic forms that will blend into the natural landscape of the Mojave Desert while eliminating litter accumulation points.
• Compliment other placemaking beautification efforts within the community and collaboratively build community pride.
• Enhance a primary thoroughfare into the community.
• Minimize worker activity near traffic on the busy State Route 14.
• Create future opportunities for the placement of community-sponsored transportation art and wayfinding signage.

Estimated cost: $1,566,000

Estimated start of construction: January 1, 2023

Estimated completion: May 30, 2023

The Fort Independence Lighting project will install lighting along US Highway 395, where the highway divides the historically underserved Fort Independence Indian Reservation. The lighting will enhance safety for tribal members accessing and crossing US Highway 395, which separates tribal residences from tribal businesses. Caltrans partnered with the Fort Independence Community of Paiute Indians to identify the project, which will:

• Compliment the Tribe’s placemaking efforts where a US highway abruptly divides their community spaces.
• Install safety-enhancing and dark sky compliant lighting to create more walkable nighttime spaces that preserve the night sky.
• Illuminate pedestrians and vehicles at intersections.

This project takes place within the boundaries of the Fort Independence Indian Reservation. The 560-acre reservation lies north of the town of Independence in Inyo County. The Fort Independence Community of Paiute Indians are descendants of the Nüümü, who arrived in  Payahuunadü (the Owens Valley) approximately 11,000 years ago.

Estimated cost: $350,000

Estimated start of construction: January 1, 2023

Estimated project completion: June 1, 2023

The Fort Independence Monuments project will install gateway monuments along US Highway 395 at the northern and southern boundaries of the historically underserved Fort Independence Indian Reservation. US Highway 395 abruptly divides the community, and the monuments will serve as visual connections of the landscape to the people.
Caltrans worked with the Fort Independence Community of Paiute Indians to identify the beautification project. The monuments will be unique art installations that:

• Serve as placemaking focal points that enhance the community spaces of the Fort Independence Indian Reservation.
• Cultivate respect and knowledge amongst travelers to the Eastern Sierra regarding the culture and history of the Paiute.
• Alert travelers on the busy US Highway 395 that they are crossing indigenous lands—a visual cue to the connection of space, land, and people that stretches back thousands of years.

This project takes place within the boundaries of the Fort Independence Indian Reservation. The 560-acre reservation lies north of the town of Independence in Inyo County. The Fort Independence Community of Paiute Indians are descendants of the Nüümü, who arrived in Payahuunadü (the Owens Valley) approximately 11,000 years ago.

Estimated cost: $350,000

Estimated start of construction: January 1, 2023

Estimated project completion: June, 2023

The Mono Lake MGS (Midwest Guardrail System) beautification and safety project will replace unsightly and outdated guardrails with safer guardrail systems that enhance the natural beauty of the scenic basin. The project will take place in Mono County along scenic US Highway 395 where it skirts Mono Lake, an ecologically important saline lake and migratory bird habitat. The nearby town of Lee Vining is the eastern gateway to Yosemite National Park and a tourist destination. The Mono Lake Basin is also the home of the Kootzaduka’a Tribe, the southernmost band of the Numu people.
Caltrans identified the project through discussions with Mono County, Lee Vining citizens, and the US Forest Service. The project includes safety enhancement and beautification features:

• A safety-enhancing guardrail system designed for high center of gravity vehicles common on today’s roads.
• An environmentally safe, reactive treatment applied to the steel guardrail to create an attractive, earthy brown finish that is fade-resistant, and long-lasting.
• A beautification treatment that will allow infrastructure to blend into the environment, enhancing the sense of place in a scenic basin of ecological and cultural significance.

Estimated cost: $1,427,000

Estimated start of construction: August 1, 2022

Estimated completion: June 1, 2023

The Bridgeport Main Street Banner project will install a banner structure that spans scenic US Highway 395 at the intersection of the highway and Sinclair Street in the town of Bridgeport in Mono County. The banner structure will be a placemaking focal point where the community can suspend customized event and welcome banners over the historic main street, enhancing and connecting Bridgeport’s livable streetscape where US Highway 395 divides the town.
Bridgeport is the county seat for Mono County, an historic ranching community, and a gateway for tourists to the renowned trout fishing lakes, rivers, and streams of California’s High Sierra Nevada. Caltrans and Mono County worked with Bridgeport citizens to select the project, which is a unique public art installation that will:

• Welcome visitors and residents to Bridgeport.
• Enhance and beautify the community’s main street.
• Serve as an anchor that activates the pedestrian space.
• Create community connection where a highway splits the town.
• Enhance safety by creating visual cues to help reduce traffic speed.

Estimated cost: $196,000

Estimated start of construction: Spring/Summer, 2022

Estimated project completion: September 1, 2023

Groups have the option to participate as volunteers or hire a maintenance service provider to work on their behalf. Fill out an online application below and your local Adopt-A-Highway Coordinator will contact you to start the adoption process or call 866-ADOPTAHWY or (866) 236-7864. For more information on the Adopt-A-Highway Program, please visit Caltrans' Adopt-A-Highway Program page.

Complete an online application:

• Online Adopt-A-Highway Volunteer Application

Download the application:

• Downloadable Adopt-A-Highway Volunteer Application (PDF)