Mother Lode Highways Get More SB1 Repair Dollars
Sonora, CA — Another California Transportation Commission allocation of over a half-billion dollars funded wholly or in part by SB1 includes more regional highway infrastructure repairs.
Among 50-plus added projects that are moving forward is an $8 million culvert repair and replacement one targeting highways in Alpine, Amador and Tuolumne counties. The locations include Highway 4 between north of Backpackers Campground and west of Highland Lakes Road in Arnold; Highway 207 between the Highway 4/207 intersection and Mt. Reba Road in Bear Valley; and Highway 108 between east of Eureka Valley Campground and east of Douglas Creek.
Another project, which addresses preventative bridge maintenance, will renovate a number of spans. Among them are Stockton Creek Bridge on Highway 49; Snake Ravine Bridge on Highway 132 in La Grange; Blitz Creek Bridge on Highway 120 in Oakdale; and Duck Creek Bridge Highway 4 in Farmington.
“This allocation builds on a year of funding approvals that have allowed us to move more than $15 billion worth of projects forward,” states Caltrans Director Laurie Berman. She adds that Caltrans has so far completed 53 SB 1 projects, a number anticipated to grow to 100 by Dec. 31 with more on the horizon for next year.
In the last year, she adds that Caltrans crews have repaired more than 2,900 potholes, replaced or repaired more than 740 lane miles of pavement, repaired more than 37,500 feet of guardrail, replaced or repaired nearly 950 highway lights and traffic signals, restriped more than 2,000 miles of highway and fixed 800 roadway signs.
Funds from SB 1, the transportation infrastructure bill that Governor Jerry Brown signed in April 2017, invest $54 billion over the next decade to fix roads, freeways, and bridges, also devoting dollars towards transit and safety. It included increases to the gas tax and vehicle licensing fees. These funds, split equally between state and local investments, will help Caltrans to fix more than 17,000 lane miles of pavement, 500 bridges, and 55,000 culverts by 2027.
Voters will decide next month whether to repeal the funding as part of the ballot measure Proposition 6.
