The California Department of Transportation (Caltran) has approved a funding of $487 million to support several transport projects in California.
The funding will support 82 construction projects to improve transportation, safety, and mobility across California. The beneficiary projects include $17 million for Highway 101 near Fairview Avenue in Santa Barbara County for the replacement of concrete culverts and bridges to reduce roadway flooding in the area.
The Shasta County has secured $27 million from the allocation to rehabilitate a ten mile section of the roadway on State Route 299 from east of Intermountain Road to west of Backbone Ridge Road. The Bella Diddy Project will improve ride quality, preventing further deterioration of the road surface, minimizing costly roadway repairs, and extending the pavement life.
In addition to the pavement rehab, the project will widen the roadway adding an 8-foot shoulder, rehabilitate culverts and the Salt Creek and Lim Creek Bridges. The project is funded by the State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP). The construction is scheduled to begin during the 2014 season and is expected to be completed in 2015.
Caltrans has allocated $39.5 million from Proposition 1B for the Lakeview Avenue Grade Separation project to construct a significant overpass from Lakeview Avenue over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline tracks and a connection and a connection road from Orangethorpe Avenue to the new overpass in the City of Placentia.
The department has apportioned $27.3 million for a bridge vertical clearance project on Interstate 80 in Placer County from Brace Road in Loomis to Magra Road in Magra. The project will raise six bridges and lower the roadway beneath three structures to meet vertical clearance requirements for permit vehicles. The required minimum vertical clearance is 16 feet, 6 inches. The bridges identified have vertical clearances of 15 feet, 6 inches or less. The construction is scheduled to commence in 2014.
The funding package comprises $169 million of fund from Proposition 1B, a 2006 voter-approved transportation bond, while the remaining $318 million in allocations have come from various state and federal transportation accounts.