State To Spend $107 Billion for Transportation
Published Jul 08, 2008
Completed in 1937, scenic Highway 1 required 18 years of construction through Big Sur by the Pacific Ocean.
California standards – from gold of the 19th century to celluloid of the 20th century and silicon of the 21st century – blaze an indelible path for the American dream. And a new Golden State goal undergirds that whole dream going forward.
Over the next decade, California will spend $107 billion on freeways and railways, seaports and airports, seeking to ensure that America’s most populous state is also its most accessible.
Were the state merely to maintain existing infrastructure, congestion could soar 35 percent by 2016.
But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Strategic Growth Plan is designed to cut bottlenecks 19 percent by adding 550 miles of high-occupancy lanes, 750 miles of new highways and 600 miles of commuter rail lines. Public transportation is projected to gain 310,000 riders, and 8,500 miles of new bike and pedestrian pathways will materialize.
In 2006, voters authorized $42 billion in infrastructure bonds as a down payment on what will become a $222 billion growth plan, including the $107 billion for transportation-related projects. Those delivering the best outcomes – reduced congestion and improved air quality – will lead the priority list, trumping the political patronage that often prevailed in the past.
“I think one of the striking things here is the idea that just building more roads would not by itself reduce congestion,” says Barry Sedlik, a former undersecretary of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. “There seems to be pretty much consensus that this is the first time a state has taken a much broader view of its transportation needs and looked at them in a much more comprehensive way.”
GOODS, BETTER, BEST
That means beginning on the coast, where the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach move nearly 16 million containers yearly. California’s Goods Movement Action Plan, a $15 billion component of the strategic plan, will reward developers that demonstrate ways to switch more containers from roads to rail.
“Moving those millions of containers every year through trucks is itself a big contributor to congestion,” says Sedlik, pointing to new port intermodal facilities being designed to raise rail container capacity.
Sedlik’s current job is chief administrative officer of the Titan Group, a community development company in El Monte, east of Los Angeles. Titan Group is planning to tap dollars available to El Monte Transit Village, a partnership that will cluster 1,850 housing units and 600,000 square feet of commercial space around an existing bus line that’s said to be the busiest route west of Chicago. Hourlong freeway commutes to downtown Los Angeles are just 14 minutes by bus, and the project will boost the affordable housing stock on underutilized public land, he says.
California transportation officials also are embarking on a plan to raise or lower key roads at rail crossings, using an initial $250 million from the bonds to keep traffic flowing and pollution from idling cars declining.
Connectivity will be harnessed throughout the state. In late 2008, voters will consider bonds to pay for high-speed rail service between cities, an effort with $40 million in planning already under the state’s belt.
In the San Joaquin Valley, meanwhile, the Port of Stockton is pursuing a $17 million dredging project to accommodate larger ships at the bulk port, while plans call for a short-line railroad to deliver Port of Oakland containers to intermodal yards in Stockton.
“These improvements to the transportation system are critical to the long-term economic development of the region,” says Michael Locke, chief executive officer of the San Joaquin Partnership.
Not to be overlooked are the state’s airports, including major international hubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco and other busy terminals in Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose and Oakland.
Story by Gary Perilloux
Photo by Jeff Adkins
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