California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his state would spend more than $540 million in transportation investments to improve travel times, renovate aging facilities and add new layers of safety around schools and community centers.
The announcement comes as the state kicks off Infrastructure Week. Part of Newsom’s Build More Faster – For All infrastructure agenda, the improvements are designed to bolster local transportation options and the state’s economy. The funding is made possible through a partnership with the legislature, officials said, and will advance local transit, maintain and improve critical infrastructure like bridges and freight corridors and generate nearly 6,000 jobs.
“California is undertaking one of the largest transportation modernization efforts in the nation – repairing aging roads and bridges, building world-class transit and freight, expanding public transit, and leading the technological future,” Newsom said. “Investments like these drive our economic growth and create thousands of good-paying jobs.”
Funding for the investment comes from bipartisan sources – $152 million from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) and $253 million in support from California’s Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, as well as $135 million from the State Highway Account, the general fund and other state and federal programs.
Projects in the investment package include $117.8 million to replace the fender system on the West Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge; $70 million to address weather-related highway repairs statewide; and $6.7 million to create a pedestrian priority area with new sidewalks in downtown Long Beach.
“Californians deserve a transportation system that is safe, reliable and built for future growth,” California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin said. “The Commission’s recent action helps support Governor Newsom’s goals of improving multimodal connectivity.”