– Caltrans press release
Bishop – The California Transportation Commission (CTC) allocated over $254 million for 41 transportation projects that will enhance the safety and mobility of Californians throughout the state, which includes $3.4 million for locally-administered Active Transportation Program projects that encourage biking and walking.
“Investing in our infrastructure benefits Californians for generations to come and these projects will improve mobility for all users of the transportation system, whether they choose to travel by car, take transit or ride a bicycle,” said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty.
The allocations included $116.2 million from Proposition 1B, the 2006 voter-approved transportation bond. This included $108 million to purchase diesel-electric locomotives and bi-level passenger railcars to improve intercity rail service by providing new capacity and replacing aging Amtrak-owned locomotives. Portions of that allocation will also be utilized for installing video and audio communications to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disability Act. Since its passage, more than $18 billion in Proposition 1B funds have been put to work statewide for transportation purposes.
The remaining $134.9 million in allocations came from assorted transportation accounts funded by state and federal dollars.
Some of the notable projects that received allocations include:
$8,347,000 was allocated for the Lee Vining Rock Fall Project that will re-vegetate and install anchored mesh on three roadway slopes and re-vegetate three additional slope locations to reduce erosion, stabilize the slopes and minimize the potential for rocks falling on U.S. Hwy 395 near Lee Vining (0.4 mile north of the National Forest Visitor Center to 0.7 mile north of the Picnic Grounds Road.
$1,673,000 was allocated to Inyo County for the South Bishop Resurfacing Project, which comprises of three county roads. New asphalt surfacing will be installed on 5.4 miles of roadway to improve maintainability and the lifetime of the pavement.
$670,000 was allocated for the Sunland Drive Bicycle Lanes Project. The project will widen Sunland Drive and install bicycle lanes, striping and signage to improve safety for bicyclists, provide a route from Bishop City Center to Wilkerson, and an alternative route for bicyclists traveling on U.S. Hwy 395.
The CTC also approved $64.7 million in supplemental funds for the Route 101-Willits Bypass project in Mendocino County. The funds are necessary to address time delays needed to complete the project due to unexpected costs incurred by work stoppages caused by protesters, increased environmental permitting requirements and an increase to the pace of environmental mitigation.
Legislation requires development and implementation of a pilot program in California to study Road Usage Charge alternatives to the current gas tax, per SB 1077. As such, the CTC also approved 15 members to the Road Usage Charge Technical Advisory Committee whose recommendations will be used to inform the development of the pilot program.
Right now, those roads we all enjoy are subsidized out of the generosity of urban taxpayers. Local tax revenues do not even begin to pay for our shared community infrastructure, including our electrical connections, gas, water, internet and major public buildings. All of that is paid for at least in… Read more »
Wave of the future: User fees and pay-as-you-go, or “Service Redesign” as our County Supervisors call it. If they would have included OHV User Fees in the Adventure Trails Plan then the out of town adventurers would at least be contributing something proportional to their impacts. As it is looks… Read more »
FYI a gas tax, as we currently have, is a Pay As You Go tax….I drive a lot, so I’m at the gas station a lot, paying my taxes that support highway/road maintenance. The issue is, as gas prices have gone up, people are buying less gas which equates to… Read more »
Gas taxes, tolls and other user fees only cover 22.7% of the the costs of our roads in California.
http://taxfoundation.org/article/gasoline-taxes-and-tolls-pay-only-third-state-local-road-spending
Amen DT. And California’s economic engine not only supports rural areas such as Inyo and Mono counties, it also supports many states as well. California receives roughly 70 cents worth of federal government services for ever dollar paid in federal taxes. The remainder goes towards supporting the (many) less-than-properous states… Read more »
DT, you act like only us rural folk drive on the roads here. Fact is, locals make up only a portion of the ADT for the highways in Inyo and Mono Counties. Those ‘generous’ people you reference liberally use the roads here. Good thing they are helping to pay for… Read more »
The whole nation benefits from a well developed infrastructure, that is indeed true. Just don’t imagine the taxes we generate up here is paying anywhere close to the bill required to pay for the infrastructure we have. We live off the subsidy of the big coastal urban areas.
DT, you got cause and effect backwards here. The big costal areas are supported by the resources of rural areas. Without the water, timber, oil, minerals, and agriculture of the entire state we would have no big cities. The taxes the cities pay provides them an infrasstructure to extract wealth… Read more »
Road Usage Charge, that’s all we need for people who live in rural areas. Pay by the mile rather than the gas tax. Well that’s our moonbeam governor.
Agreed, a Road Usage Charge appears to hit rural residents harder than city dwellers. For example, if we need to go to the Social Security Office, we have to drive 480 miles (from Mammoth) to get to one. How about the DMV? That’s 90 miles round trip, and even further… Read more »
According to the Inyo County Budget 2013/2014, the largest chunk of General Fund Revenues comes from: “Aid From Other Govt Agencies 49.29%”
http://www.inyocounty.us/Budget/2013-2014/Documents/Budget.pdf
See pie chart on page 43 for reference.
Aid from other agencies (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) is not county generated. However if you wish to add that to the mix keep in mind that it is based on other agency acreages. Death Valley National Park is largest in continental U.S., Most of China Lake Weapons Center, much… Read more »
I would welcome a new bike lane anywhere they’re willing to put one. But I’d imagine they prioritize improvement projects based on the bigger picture of needs and usage, not on north, south, east, west revenue collections.
Okey, down here we have the Gold Mine, Crystal Geyser, Coso Geothermal plant, Owens lake Projects. Should I say more.
I didn’t know we had a operating gold mine. Thxs Earl.
The tax revenues from Coso Geothermal power plant are the largest revenue source in Inyo County.
Maybe they should stripe a bike lane around the geothermal plant then…
I’m glad were getting bike lanes , but Bishop needs to finish their sidewalk projects. Our city planner seems to think it’s o.k. to walk away from all those handy cap ramps to nowhere he help get put in.
So how exactly will spending by CALTRANs improve revenue flow from the Coso Geothermal field? Cause and effect are not there. There is already a project to widen the last two lane section of US 395 that is not very well received.
Earl-what makes you say that southern Inyo produces more revenue than northern ?
that’s all great for the Northern part of the county, but what does Southern Inyo get out of the funding? most of the money generated in the county comes from down here. All we get is Ghost town money.
+1
The Sunland Drive Bicycle Lane Project …. Thumbs up Cal Trans