It looks like some of the stimulus money might actually show its face soon in the economy.
The California Transportation Commission (CTC) adopted a list of 57 transportation projects – totaling $625 million – yesterday as the first in line to receive infrastructure-focused federal economic stimulus dollars.
The CTC also voted to allocate funding for 56 of these projects, pending only final approval by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to release the stimulus funds, enabling construction to begin.
The 57th project is the reconstruction of Doyle Drive in San Francisco, which is the southern access to the Golden Gate Bridge and is awaiting approval from the CTC for the environmental approval phase before being presented to the commission for consideration of a funding allocation next month.
Caltrans Director Will Kempton says the agency plans on starting the first of these projects within 60 days. Caltrans will use the $625 million in federal economic stimulus funding to leverage other state resources.
Nearly $565 million of the funding is targeted for projects in the State Highway Operations and Protection Program (SHOPP), including work on both rural and urban highways, the CTC says.
These projects (paving, fixing potholes, safety, bridge preservation) receive funding first because protecting public safety is the highest priority and preserving the state’s investment in its highway system is highly cost-effective, according to the CTC. The remaining $60 million of funding allocated today will go towards pavement preservation projects.
California is expected to receive approximately $2.57 billion for highways, local streets and roads, freight and passenger rail, and port infrastructure projects from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) signed by President Obama on February 17.
For a complete list of the 57 transportation projects that were adopted/allocated funding at today’s meeting, go to http://www.dot.ca.gov/Documents/federaleconomicstimulustransportationprojects.pdf.
