After 16 years of warning about the state’s transportation infrastructure, the California State Auditor has removed it from the “high risk” list.
Noting the improvements made in rebuilding and upgrading the state’s transportation systems in recent years, Auditor Grant Parks said the decision to remove the transportation infrastructure from the high-risk list was due to “significant progress made toward mitigating various risk factors.”
First identified as a high-risk issue for the state in May 2007, the Auditor’s office at the time said that long-term stable funding sources were needed to address maintaining and upgrading the state’s aging road and bridges, as well as to reduce traffic delays and increase options for transit. The “high risk” list identifies issues and agencies that pose a high risk to the state.
“The Auditor’s 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,” Toks Omishakin, California Transportation Secretary, said. “This progress has been especially noteworthy since the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017… 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.”
SB 1, officials said, provided the state with more than $5 billion in transportation funding annually for state and local agencies. Since its passage, the state has spent more than $18.3 billion on over 10,000 projects in communities throughout the state.