Caltrans Local Assistance

Except for the ITS Deployment Program, which is a Congressional earmark program, ITS is a requirement rather than a program. Projects defined as ITS projects must be in compliance with the National ITS Architecture, adhere to ITS Standards and undergo Systems Engineering , per 23 CFR 940 entitled "Intelligent Transportation System Architecture and Standards".

There are two types of Federal procedures for ITS projects which depend on whether a project is a regular Federal -aid project or part of the ITS Deployment Program. To distinguish regular ITS projects from ITS Deployment projects, a regular ITS project is any ITS project that is not funded by the ITS Deployment Program.

A. Regular Federal-Aid ITS Projects

Even though there are no specific program or funding for regular federal-aid ITS projects, such projects are eligible for federal-aid funds from the NHS Program STP Program and CMAQ Program. The funding pro-rata depends on each program, respectively. Furthermore, TEA-21 clarified the eligibility of operation and management of ITS for NHS, STP and CMAQ funds. These projects follow normal federal-aid regulations and procedures for project development, with the exception of some extra steps for compliance with Systems Engineering requirements. For guidance on this type of project, access Local Assistance Program Guidelines Chapter 12.6 "Intelligent Transportation Systems".

B. ITS Deployment Program

This program is limited to Congressional earmarks. Congress selects projects for this program via applications from the state or local agency sponsors. The successful state or local transportation agency sponsors and their projects are then listed and identified in either an Authorization Act or an annual Transportation Approriation Act. To be eligible, ITS Deployment Projects must be for integration purposes. Integration is defined as combining or interconnecting two or more ITS systemes for a sharing of information and inter-operability between systems, subsystems or jurisdictions.

The requirements for projects in this program are subject to changes by Congress or FHWA each year. For the most current requirements, the local agency must rely on the latest annual FHWA ITS Deployment Program Guideline. The FHWA guidelines are normally issued every January and are available on the FHWA Discretionary Program web site at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/discretionary/proginfo.htm

Even after the Authorization Act or Appropriations Act is passed, local agency sponsors with listed earmarks must submit a project description for review and approval by FHWA prior to authorization in order to proceed with the project. FHWA reviews the project description for integration, eligibility, funding match, ITS architecture, standards, reporting requiremnts, etc.

Upon FHWA approval of the project description, the project follows the federal-aid procedures in Chapter 12.6 of the LAPG. This program, however, has a couple more requirements during and after construction. They are the quarterly status reports and project evaluation.

Caltrans HQ home page: http://www.dot.ca.gov

FHWA California Division Office: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/cadiv/

FHWA HQ home page: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov

ITS Benefit-cost Database: http://www.benefitcost.its.dot.gov/

ITS Conformity Rule: http://www.its.dot.gov/aconform/aconform.htm

ITS Eligibility Costs for Operating a Transportation Management System: http://www.nawgits.com/fhwa/eligibleletter.html

ITS Integration Program: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/discretionary

ITS Standards: http://www.its.dot.gov

National ITS Architecture: http://itsarch.iteris.com/itsarch/

NHI Its Training Courses: http://nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/coursecg.html

UC Berkeley ITS Courses: http://www.its.berkeley.edu/techtransfer/train/opn/byDate.lasso

US DOT ITS site: http://www.its.dot.gov/

If you have any questions or are experiencing problems downloading, please contact your local Caltrans District Local Assistance Office or the Caltrans HQ Division of Local Assistance ITS Coordinator.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)