CALIFORNIA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION APPROVES BILLION-DOLLAR INFUSION OF FUNDING TO UPGRADE TRANSPORTATION AND PROMOTE JOBS ( PRESS RELEASE)
Bishop – Continuing the drive to rebuild the state’s infrastructure, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) today allocated $1 billion in funding for 153 transportation projects that will strengthen the state’s economy by sustaining and creating jobs while providing congestion relief for motorists statewide.
“We’re building transportation improvements that will benefit the state for decades to come and boost job growth in every region of California,” said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty.
The allocations include nearly $541 million from Proposition 1B, a 2006 voter-approved transportation bond. In total, more than $15.5 billion in Proposition 1B funds have been put to work statewide.
Highlights of the funding allocations include:
$6,355,000 has been allocated for pavement rehabilitation near Lone Pine, between 0.7 mile south of Cottonwood Road and 0.4 mile south of Lubken Canyon road. The project consists of removing and replacing a 4-inch layer of existing pavement and placing hot mix asphalt overlay in order to improve ride quality and reduce maintenance costs along 17.4 lane miles.
$2,443,000 has been allocated for pavement rehabilitation near Lee Vining, between 0.4 mile north to 1.6 miles north of Virginia Lakes Road. The project consists of repairing areas of asphalt with a cold-recycle-in-place and overlay to improve ride quality and reduce future maintenance costs along 6.0 lane miles.
$90,000 to ESTA for the purpose of purchasing a gas engine ADA accessible replacement bus.
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deer crossings would require deer fencing which encourages the deer to cross at the built in crossings. Caltrans attempted to do a deer fence and undercrossing project along 395 south of Walker Canyon. Fish and Game stopped the project. That was after a five year environmental process to environmentally clear the project. You would think deer fencing and undercrossings wouldn’t be a big deal..but I guess they are!
Plus ther should be larger tunnels under canals, creeks, rivers, so animals can move upstream without having to cross the highway. These animals cannot move faster than a moving car at 60 miles per hour. Example: Big Pine Canel crossing, near the “track” housing.
While I appreciate the high quality roads that we have here in the eastside, the notion that they need to be ‘rehabilitated’ is laughable. Highway 395 is always being repaired, even when it has nothing wrong with it. When you consider the rest of the state is broke, school districts are being gutted, no money for anything, taxes have to be raised, yet Caltrans always seems to have a big pot ‘o cash to put their contractors to work.
I have nothing against these contractors, they do a very good job.
When they have to come out to rip up and repave 17 miles of perfectly good road, just for ‘ride quality’, and because there might be a couple of cracks, well, you might see my frustration.
A long time ago someone from Caltrans told me “if we don’t spend all the money we get allocated in a year, we wont get as much as next year. I guess that still holds true even today, when there are large deficits everywhere. I do understand that their funding sources come from gas taxes and bonds, but really the roads around here are in great shape.
Much of the money spent comes from Federal and state gas tax revenues and legally may not be spent anywhere else but highways and public transportation. This was done to prevent legislators from raiding gas tax funds for other pet projects not related to transportation. Local projects receive some funding from local sales taxes but most street maintenance projects are paid for by gas tax revenues (I work this situation as a member of a city council committee where I live and am intimately familiar with how this works). In addition local road construction or major rehabilitation projects get funded from state and Federal grants. Most cities could not keep up with road repairs and rehabilitation without these grants.
Btw, considering the climate and the altitudes US 395 runs through and the amount of traffic it carries, if it wasn’t being repaired almost constantly it would fall apart very quickly. Visit Ridgecrest to see what roads look like when you don’t spend money maintaining them. Barely paved motocross is what I call it. Horrible.
What is needed is deer crossings such as tunnels or bridges along the Mammoth airport stretch were there are deer killed by automobiles everyday. How could we implement that, does anyone know? =
Gee more road construction delays! Hope Caltrans does a better job planning these projects than they did on the High Point re-alignment project!
Mono County is where the growth is.
It’s where the money is.
It’s where the pristine beauty is.
It’s where the water is.
It’s where the liberal people live.
It’s where the art and culture is.
Mono County is THE place.
If you can afford it.