System Planning

System Planning is Caltrans' long-range transportation planning process. Both multi-modal and multi-jurisdictional, the planning process includes evaluating and recommending for programming improvements to the State transportation system. The process involves these interrelated planning documents:

California Transportation Plan (CTP)
The CTP is a statewide, long-range transportation plan for meeting our future mobility needs.

District System Management Plan (DSMP)
The DSMP is a strategic and policy planning document detailing how the District envisions the transportation system will be maintained, managed and developed during the next 20 years.

Transportation System Development Plan (TSDP)
The TSDP addresses State Highway and other modal improvements needed to maintain regional mobility, decrease traffic congestion, and improve system wide connectivity.

Corridor System Management Plan (CSMP)
CSMPs provide for the integrated management of travel modes and roadways so as to facilitate the efficient and effective mobility of people and goods within our most congested transportation corridors. Each CSMP presents an analysis of existing and future traffic conditions and proposes traffic management strategies and capital improvements to maintain and enhance mobility within each corridor.

Completed CSMPs in District 5 include the following:

CSMPs in Development in District 5 include the following:

US 101 (SB & SLO)

Transportation Concept Reports (TCR)
For each State highway, the TCR is a document that does the following: identifies current and projected operating conditions on the facility, establishes a 20-year planning concept, identifies facility deficiencies in relation to the concept, and identifies broad and flexible options to achieve the 20-year concept.

Route Concept Reports (RCR)
The RCR is an outmoded document that has been superseded by the Transportation Concept Report (TCR). There are a number of routes for which there is currently only a Route Concept Report available.

Comprehensive Corridor Study (CCS)
A Comprehensive Corridor Study (CCS) is a planning document which identifies strategies and recommendations that support the long term vision for a corridor. The vision and strategies developed for a corridor are determined through a collaborative effort and are based on an all inclusive analysis of existing conditions and deficiencies.

State Route 46 East Comprehensive Corridor Study

Transportation Planning Fact Sheets
Fact sheets are succinct and frequently updated documents that precede Transportation Concept Reports (TCR). They summarize TCR route concepts and provide corridor statistics and characteristics for State highways and State highway segments.

Route System / Route Designation Maps
Route System and Route Designation maps show which routes are part of the Interregional Route System Scenic Highway System, National Highway System, Freeway and Expressway System, and other designations.

Elkhorn Slough Early Mitigation Partnership
The Elkhorn Slough Early Mitigation Partnership is a Caltrans-sponsored interagency effort to provide early mitigation for a series of future transportation improvement projects within the Elkhorn Slough Watershed. This project seeks to help address regional scale conservation in a manner that also can help facilitate project delivery by developing a process for identifying funding strategies and implementing conservation agreements earlier than would be possible through existing traditional channels.

Additional information is available in article The Elkhorn Slough Early Mitigation Partnership: A Collaborative Approach to Meeting Regional Transportation Needs and Conservation Objectives by Gary Ruggerone.

Big Sur Coast Highway Management Plan (CHMP)
The California Department of Transportation led a collaborative planning effort among diverse stakeholders, including state, federal, and local agencies, community organizations, and elected officials, to develop a management plan for Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast. The effort produced the Big Sur Coast Highway Management Plan, intended to establish coordinated management of the Highway 1 corridor along this widely treasured coastline. The management plan covers an area along Highway 1 from the Carmel River in Monterey County to San Carpoforo Creek in northern San Luis Obispo County.