State of Motion

Earl Seaberg of the California Department of Transportation explains how Recovery Act money is getting the state moving in more ways than one.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) is intended to help the states restart their economies and stimulate employment during the economic downturn.

California is receiving $2.57 billion for highways, local streets and roads, and $1.07 billion for transit projects. In March, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation (AB x3-20) that expedited the allocation of $835 million to regional transportation agencies, who will receive $1.6 billion in federal economic stimulus funds from the Recovery Act. The legislation modified existing state law, providing greater delegation to regional transportation agencies for selecting projects and programming their dollars. The new law also gave Caltrans the flexibility to loan $310 million of state Recovery Act stimulus funds to move a number of other projects more quickly to construction. These particular projects were chosen because they could provide construction jobs immediately and also provide the greatest long-term economic benefits for the state of California.

By this fall, Caltrans expects $2 billion in Recovery Act funds will have been federally approved and committed to hundreds of highway projects throughout California – underscoring the state's focus on pumping federal stimulus funding into the economy as quickly, efficiently, and responsibly as possible. Also this fall, California will have met Recovery Act deadlines for transit funds and will have submitted Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant applications well in excess of $300 million to the US Department of Transportation.

High-speed rail
The Recovery Act provides $8 billion nationally for high-speed rail and intercity passenger rail. With a commitment last November by voters to issue nearly $10 billion of state bonds, including $190 million for intercity passenger rail, California is once again leading the nation as the first state to commence and fund high-speed rail development.

There are plans for 800 miles of track that would carry trains traveling up to 220 mph. The trains would link San Francisco, Sacramento, the Central Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego.

In July, US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced that a route between Southern California and Las Vegas had been amended into the federally designated California high-speed rail corridor. There are two competing private sector high-speed train proposals for this route. A magnetic levitation train connecting Anaheim and Las Vegas would be the first in the US to use magnetic levitation technology. The initial segments of the Maglev system proposed for construction are between Las Vegas and Primm, Nevada and between Anaheim and the Ontario airport. The electric DesertXpress initial service would connect Las Vegas and Victorville, California. A subsequent phase of the project would extend service to Palmdale where it would connect with the planned California high-speed rail system.

Notable Recovery Act projects
Caltrans anticipates $1 billion worth of state and local Recovery Act projects will be advertised for contractors to bid on by the end of this year.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, construction to the main southern approach to the Golden Gate Bridge will be expedited thanks to $50 million in federal economic stimulus funding from the Recovery Act. The Doyle Drive project is on schedule to begin construction this fall, instead of 2010. Doyle Drive is a badly deteriorated 70-year old section of US 101 that is being replaced with a modern, seismically safe parkway connecting San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Presidio of San Francisco, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Also near the Bay Area, construction is well underway on the first project funded by the Recovery Act. The project will improve the pavement on a 50-year-old section of Interstate 80 used by nearly 200,000 motorists each day. The $13.5 million project was fully funded by Recovery Act dollars and came in nearly 40 percent under original cost estimates.

Interstate 405 in Los Angeles is one of, if not the, busiest transportation corridors in the United States. On May 8, Governor Schwarzenegger launched the start of the Interstate 405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Project in Los Angeles, a billion-dollar project that is proceeding on schedule thanks to $190 million in federal economic stimulus funding from the Recovery Act. This project is the final segment of the carpool lane system on I-405 in Los Angeles County. When it is completed, motorists will be able to use the carpool lane all the way from Orange County to the San Fernando Valley.

On May 27, thanks to $74.3 million in Recovery Act funding, construction began in San Diego on the next phase of the State Route 905 Project. The entire project will cost $620 million and will create eight miles of a new six-lane freeway near the US- Mexico border. Annual trade between California and Baja California totals more than $35 billion, and border ports of entry process more than two million trucks each year, a figure expected to double within the next decade.

The Recovery Act is providing $128 million for a project in the Inland Empire of California that is scheduled to start this fall. The project will reconstruct Interstate 215 and add bus/carpool lanes through the city of San Bernardino, which is one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation.

The Recovery Act is helping the nation restart its economy during the worst economic downturn in over 70 years. It is helping accelerate transportation projects that move people and goods, increase safety, and restore our aging transportation infrastructure. The Recovery Act will put California and other states in a better position to achieve greater long-term objectives – the upcoming authorization of the next federal transportation act.

Earl Seaberg is Deputy Program Manager, Recovery Act at the California Department of Transportation.