More than $12 million in infrastructure funding is on its way to San Diego and Imperial counties through the California Transportation Commission, it was announced Thursday.
The commission allocated more than $1.2 billion to transportation and infrastructure projects throughout the state. Nearly $428 million of the funding comes from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and nearly $165 million via Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.
The commission included $245 million for full trash-capture devices, shoreline embankment restoration, improvements to bus, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, railroad overcrossings and better state highway alignment with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Trash-capture devices are mesh screens placed in rivers and other waterways that filter out large and small pollutants. They prevent litter from continuing downstream to bays, estuaries and the ocean.
“California is continuing to upgrade our transportation infrastructure,” Caltrans Director Tony Tavares said. “These investments will help us increase the safe, equitable and sustainable transportation access that all Californians deserve.”
Locally, $3 million has been set aside on Interstate 805 in Chula Vista to replace two culverts near H Street and mitigate for gnatcatcher habitat with planting and irrigation. Another $100,000 is for Bayshore Bikeway Segment 6A to construct a quarter mile of Class I bikeway, install a high-visibility crosswalk and a new pedestrian/bike high intensity activated crosswalk beacon.
Just over $1 million goes to Oceanside to implement Safe Routes to School infrastructure improvements, including 868 feet of sidewalks, 29 curb ramps, a roundabout and two rectangular rapid flashing beacons.
The largest sum in the region is headed to neighboring Imperial County, which was allocated nearly $8 million on Interstate 8 west of state Route 98 to remove boulders, perform blasting, rock scaling, repair pavement and fencing and restore eroded and washed-out areas caused by Tropical Storm Hillary.
– City News Service