Voters Gave Us Responsibility;
Caltrans Tasked with Delivery

Director Will Kempton

Everything changed for Caltrans and its partners after November 7, 2006. Following the passage of Proposition 1B, we are faced with a huge challenge and a tremendous opportunity. California voters have entrusted us with a great responsibility.

As Governor Schwarzenegger noted in his Executive Order of January 24, 2007, “A massive infusion of new infrastructure investment is necessary to ensure the state’s high quality of life and California’s position as a global economic powerhouse.”

To meet this need, he has given us new marching orders.

As a result, I have told our District Directors that we need to focus on three primary areas: Delivery, Accountability and Transparency. We have an important task before us, and it is imperative that we deliver all projects within the Strategic Growth Plan as they are scoped and within their budgets. We must deliver our projects. We must be accountable for them. We must also deliver them with absolutely transparency – so voters and users can gauge our progress.

Every Caltrans employee will have a role to play in this process, and everyone can contribute to this effort.

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Over the last month, the Strategic Growth Plan has made a huge leap forward, growing from a necessary concept to increase mobility throughout the state to a significantly funded program that will soon begin delivering real transportation improvements.

After careful deliberation and substantial input from Caltrans and our partners, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) in late February agreed to fund a historic down payment that will jumpstart congestion-relieving transportation projects in serious traffic “choke points” across the state.

Caltrans, along with regional and local transportation agencies, nominated projects for the Corridor Mobility Improvement Account (CMIA) based on guidelines the CTC had developed in early December. The CTC programmed $4.5 billion in the CMIA – nearly 25 percent of the $19.9 billion voters approved in November – to help get California moving again. Under the program’s requirements, about $2.7 billion of the CMIA was earmarked for Southern California, and some $1.8 billion to Northern California. The balance of the $19.9 billion bond will be set aside for public transportation, upgrades to ports, local transportation projects, and other important programs.

Among the largest projects the CTC allocated are the addition of carpool lanes to the Interstate 405 (San Diego Freeway) between the Santa Monica and Ventura freeways in Los Angeles, as well as carpool lanes on Interstate 5. The Interstate 215 (San Bernardino Freeway), one of the most congested highways in the state, will receive funds for additional lanes to help cut traffic delays. The Bay Area will receive help with the fourth bore on the Caldecott Tunnel and carpool lanes on Interstates 880 and 580 and Highway 101. San Diego will see additional investment on the I-15 managed lanes.

In mid-March the CTC also made nearly $1 billion available to Caltrans for safety, operational enhancements, and capacity improvements along approximately 400 miles of the State Highway 99 corridor. This investment will close existing freeway gaps along the corridor, and will convert four-lane sections to six lanes.

The schedule for funding projects within the Proposition 1B framework will continue through the current fiscal year and into FY 2007-2008.

• A working group began meeting this month to establish guidelines for trade corridors considered to be of economic importance to the state. Guidelines for the $2 billion Trade Corridor Improvement Fund are tentatively due to be adopted in July with investment decisions expected by the end of the calendar year.
• By June 7, the CTC anticipates adopting $2 billion in projects to augment the State Transportation Improvement Program.
• At the same June meeting, the CTC is expected to make up to $400 million available for Caltrans intercity rail projects. Of that total, some $125 million will be used to buy intercity rail cars and locomotives.

Other smaller, but significant, amounts will be available for projects in coming months.

• $1 billion to be allocated over five years for state and local partnership work (which eligible agencies must match). This program requires further legislative guidelines.
• $125 million for retrofitting local bridges for earthquake safety. These funds will provide 11.5 percent required match for federal Highway Bridge Replacement and Repair funds available for the seismic retrofit of local bridges that are seismically deficient. (June 2007)
• $250 million available to Caltrans for completing high-priority grade separations and railroad crossings. (July 2007)
• $500 million for the State Highway Operations and Preservation Program. (June 2007)
• $250 million for traffic light synchronization. (to be scheduled)
• An additional $7.9 billion will go toward port air quality, port security, school bus retrofits, transit, transit safety and local streets and roads. The timing on these allocations is yet to be decided.

The available money from Proposition 1B will not by itself fund all the state’s transportation needs. However, it does signal an important change in California transportation priorities, because it reverses a longstanding trend of under-investment in the state’s aging and increasingly congested mobility network. Since 1992, California’s population increased by 21 percent, while the number of miles in the State Highway System went up by only about 3 percent.

In addition to the bonds, we are pursuing market-based strategies to leverage public investment, including public-private partnerships that harness the skills and resources of the private sector while maintaining appropriate public control. The Strategic Growth Plan also envisions the ultimate use and expansion of project delivery strategies such as “design-build.”

Clearly, this is a big step forward. It will not be long before Caltrans and its regional transportation partners will begin building hundreds of miles of carpool and mixed-use highway lanes. Additional allocations from the CTC will allow us to get back on track with expanded intercity and commuter rail.

The $4.5 billion in the CMIA may be only a first installment on a 10-year investment in California’s future. However, we can use the $19.9 billion transportation bond proceeds from Proposition 1B to leverage funds from the private sector, federal and local resources. That will certainly multiply the total funds that we can apply to improving and building transportation infrastructure – to as much as $107 billion over the next decade.

The eyes of the world will now be upon us. Our charge is to create a first-rate transportation system for America’s No. 1 state. We will do this by employing these watchwords:

Delivery. Accountability. Transparency.