Caltrans Grants $550 Million to Transit Projects Statewide

Caltrans announced over the holiday weekend that it has allocated one of the remaining chunks of money from Prop 1B, the massive transportation bond act approved by California voters in 2006.

Over $550 million was awarded to transit capital projects throughout the state. The projects include building transit centers and bus stop facilities, replacing buses and rail cars, and building repair facilities. Large and small agencies received the funds; a complete list is available here [PDF].

The largest allocations include:

• $106 million to L.A. Metro for Exposition light rail, phase 2
• $81 million to San Francisco Muni to complete the Central Subway project
• $58 million to L.A. Metro for the Regional Connector light rail subway
• $43 million to Orange County for the Raymond Avenue grade separation
• $41 million to L.A. Metro for bus procurement
• $36 million to San Diego for light rail vehicles
• $30 million to Santa Clara for the Alum Rock Bus Rapid Transit
• $20 million to AC Transit to complete the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco

Many smaller projects were also awarded funds, a total of $559,368,166 for 77 projects. Kern and Fresno counties received money to buy natural gas buses and a new fleetwide computer system, Santa Monica got money to replace buses, and the city of Chowchilla got enough to purchase one new transit bus. The smallest award went to California City, in the Mojave desert: $11,715 for a park-and-ride lot.

Prop 1B, known as the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act, authorized the issuance of close to $20 billion in general obligation bonds for transportation projects throughout the state.

Since then, Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission have been allocating funds in the following program areas (the amounts shown here are what was originally called for in the bill--not all of the money has been allocated):

• $6.75 billion for major corridors and highways
• $3.1 billion for ports, including money to the California Air Resources Board for air pollution reductions
• $200 million for school bus retrofits and replacements
• $4.6 billion for public transportation, including modernization, service enhancement, and security
• $375 million for railroad crossings and bridges
• $2 billion for local streets and roads improvement, congestion relief, and traffic safety
• $1 billion for the State-Local Partnership Program
• $2 billion for the State Transportation Improvement Program

Funds remaining after this last allocation include $290 million for public transit projects, $50 million for local streets and roads, $240 million for emission reductions in freight, and $458 million for transit system safety, security and disaster planning.

Local agencies have two more years to submit requests for these funds.

Last December, Caltrans allocated more than $230 million for 86 transit projects, including $45 million to purchase 550 replacement buses in Los Angeles County.

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