Transportation infrastructure removed from ‘high risk’ list after 16 years

California Construction News staff writer

The California State Auditor has removed the state’s transportation infrastructure from its “high-risk list” after 16 years, noting the progress California has made in rebuilding and upgrading the system.

“The findings are a testament to the substantial progress Caltrans, the California Transportation Commission and our partners have made as we work together to improve and rebuild our state’s critical transportation infrastructure,” said Toks Omishakin, California transportation secretary. “This progress has been especially noteworthy since the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 ― landmark legislation that ushered in a new era of infrastructure investment to rebuild California. Our elected officials and the people of California entrusted us with their hard-earned tax dollars to upgrade the state’s aging infrastructure, and we have delivered and will continue to make good on that trust.”

California’s deteriorating transportation infrastructure was designated as a high-risk issue in May 2007, and a long-term stable funding source was needed to address maintaining and upgrading the state’s aging roads and bridges, reduce traffic delays, improve goods movement, and increase options for transit, intercity rail and active transportation.

SB 1 provided more than $5 billion annually that is shared equally between state and local agencies – the first significant, stable and ongoing increase in state transportation funding in more than two decades.

Since the start of SB 1, Caltrans has:

• enhanced pavement on nearly 15,000 lane miles on the state highway system so 99% of pavement is in good or fair condition ― above the SB 1 goal of 98% by 2027.
• fixed 1,512 bridges ― more than doubling the number of structures repaired annually and already surpassing the SB 1 goal of 500 additional bridges restored by 2027.
• repaired 578,285 linear feet of culverts ― a more than three-fold increase from pre-SB 1 levels ― and cleaned more than 1.6 million linear feet of culverts so 90% of drainage systems on the state highway network are now in good or fair condition, in line with SB 1’s 10-year goal.
• added or repaired nearly 6,200 traffic management system elements, with 77% currently in good or fair condition and on track to reach the SB 1 target of 90% in good condition by 2027.