California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) officials said the state would receive more than $493 million in additional transportation funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) annual August redistribution.
“These federal funds will help Caltrans and local agencies invest in improving the transportation system throughout California,”
Toks Omishakin, Caltrans director, said. “California has a reputation for maximizing its federal funding and successfully launching infrastructure projects on time, and these additional funds represent our reward for that proven track record.”
Caltrans officials said annually, when certain federal transportation funding remains unspent before deadlines, the funds revert to a federal pool and are redistributed to states like California completing all requirements and prepared to use the additional federal funds before the end of the federal fiscal year. The federal pool totaled about $4.7 billion.
The funding would aid statewide Caltrans efforts such as FixSac5 HOV and Los Angeles County improvement projects along Interstate 5 designed to enhance safety, improve traffic flow, reduce congestion, encourage ridesharing, decrease surface street traffic and improve air quality.
Most of the projects receiving August redistribution funding are already allocated by the California Transportation Commission and underway using state dollars until federal money becomes available.
Caltrans officials said the agency and local communities would continue to address the state’s infrastructure maintenance needs.