All right, we're going to get going here. Let's start with the role and instructions. Douglas.
Thank you, chair.
Mr. Bradshaw.
Commissioner Cruz.
Commissioner Brown.
Here.
Here.
Mr. Elliot.
Here.
Vice Chair Falcone.
Here.
Mr. Gordino.
Present.
Commissioner Lugo.
coming online. Commissioner Mann. Commissioner Tiffany. Chair Grisby. Present. Senator Gortezi.
Assemblymember Wilson. Gortezi here. Thank you, Senator. Commissioner Lugo. Present online.
Thanks, Dad. Thank you. Welcome to the CTC meeting here in beautiful Roseville slash
Rockland, almost Lincoln.
Got my notes.
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Thank you for joining us today. We know your time is valuable. We appreciate you
sharing some of what with us. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Douglas. It's with great
pleasure that we that we moved to item 2, election of Commission Chair and Vice
Chair. Before we enter this particular item, I'd like to say I've truly enjoyed
my time serving as chair with this great body and the amazing people who have a wide variety
of life experiences that in fact represent our state and enrich our ability to move forward
on policy here. I feel like I've learned quite a bit in this role. I made a little bit of history
here and there and it's with great pleasure that I am prepared to, when we move to the motion
section, which we are now. I'd like to make a motion for Vice Chair Fokon to be Chair
and for Commissioner Cruz to become Vice Chair. I call on Commissioner Iger.
Thank you, Chair Grisby. I'm going to second, but before I do, I just wanted to say a special thank
you to Chair Grisby for all the work that he has done this last year. For those of us who are from
and rural California.
We had a wonderful advocate and chair Grisby
and making sure that our needs are put forward
and highlighted throughout the state of California.
And I know Vice Chair Falcone will continue on
with those wonderful projects
that you had put forward this last year.
And certainly Commissioner Cruz will fight the good fight
for all of us around the state of California. So I look forward to working with you in your new role.
And with that, I will second your motion. Thank you. First, I'll entertain if there's
any other motions before we move to a vote. Hearing none, all those in favor? Opposed?
Abstentions? Motion is approved. All right, now we're moving to item number three.
Welcome to the region Matt click
Well, good afternoon beg your pardon be sure for it I made an error is there any public comment on the last item that
We just covered
No, I'm not seeing any request to comment on that item. All right. Thank you so much Justin, please continue, sir
Thank you chair
CTC commissioners, staff, and all in attendance, on behalf of PCTPA, I welcome you to the city
of Roseville and Placer County. I want to thank you for coming to our community. I especially
want to thank the commission and CTC staff for the work that you do. It is hard work and it is
important work. Your tasks are large and they are many. I thank you for being willing to take them
on. So a few words about where you find yourself today. This is the historic land of the Maidu
and Miwok peoples who first came here over 9000 years ago, today known as the United Auburn Indian
Community or UAIC. The UAIC are amazing partners to us and in fact have recently invested 40 million
dollars of their own money in regional infrastructure for this area. You know Placer is a big and diverse
community from the growing suburbs here in West Placer to the agriculture and
foothills of middle Placer all the way to the Sierras and Lake Tahoe in eastern
Placer. You know we're ranked as one of the safest places in California and one
of the best places to live in the United States and yes there's a sense of pride
that comes with that. We're known for our high quality of life which is anchored
by our top-ranked schools, abundant parks and access to open space. We are one of the
fastest-growing communities in California building thousands of new homes each year.
We are a place where young Californians can buy a home and raise their kids in the state
that they love. We're thankful for the growth and happy to be doing our small part in providing
the necessary housing for California. We're excited about the $2 billion investment in
the Bosch semiconductor plant about a mile from here, and the new Sacramento
State Sierra College campus that's being built about three miles from here, which
will welcome students in the fall of 2028. So to meet this population growth
and economic development, we are investing in our infrastructure. You know
Roseville was built on transportation and is home to the largest freight
railroad switching yard west of the Mississippi. Union Pacific's JR Davis
yard is less than a mile from where we sit. You can see it in the top right
corner of that picture on your slide. But moving into the future, we are
launching new all-electronic express bus service called RapidLink that will
connect our growing communities with Sacramento Light Rail services. We are
aggressively building a network of interconnected trails, bike lanes, and
pedestrian safety features, as well as finishing up our countywide active
transportation plan, which is a first for Placer County. We are laying out a plan
and to get Placer ready for more zero-emission vehicles.
And at that plan's cornerstone is the belief
that all residents, regardless of income,
should have the opportunity to transition
to zero-emission vehicles, another first for Placer.
We are also working on evacuation planning and resiliency
to make sure our residents and visitors
can escape harm if they need to.
I'm extremely proud that our board
unanimously adopted an equity policy
that guides all our planning work
and is a stated goal in our recently adopted RTP.
Again, another first for Placer.
And while we do all of this work
to reduce VMT and our carbon footprint,
we will also need limited and targeted investments
in traditional infrastructure,
best represented by the Rockland Road Interchange Project
some of you toured earlier today.
And as we grow, we are trying to do so
in the most sustainable, responsible,
and equitable way possible.
Thank you for coming to Placer.
I wish you a productive couple of days.
I look forward to seeing you all tonight.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any questions from the dais, comments?
Commissioner Tiffany.
Yeah, I just wanted to comment.
A number of us as well as a number of staff members
enjoyed your tour this morning
and seeing the Rockland area and the Sierra college
and we really appreciate it was very thorough
and really exciting the project,
the Rockland Interchange Project that you're talking about.
So thank you for that.
Thank you, Commissioner Cruz.
And I just wanna thank you for the warm welcome.
Spent a lot of time in Placer County,
live in Sacramento.
Apologize for not being able to make the tour,
but I know you guys doing some great projects
in Placer County, a lot going on, uh, as far as the residential side,
commercial side and also, uh, with the, with the tribes and their entertainment
venues, um, but appreciate their hard work. Um, you know,
I've worked on a couple of sales tax measures here in the past,
so we're hoping to one day drag it over the finish line and,
and bring more money, uh,
to have that look good match to be able to bring down more projects.
So we appreciate all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner.
Thank you. Um, any other questions? I do have one for you.
So for me when it comes to equity I believe that it's inclusive of all
people including you know white folks and I heard that there are some
innovations around equity in this region and just wondering if you could share
some of the things you've been working on when it comes to equity because you
mentioned the equity statement. Yeah I would say that I'm not sure as far as
innovations around equity what we're I think what we're focused on is there's
There's many forms of equity.
Obviously, we have a very good working relationship
with the tribe and that is a lot of it.
And then we are really trying to get a lot of populations
that don't have as much access to traditional infrastructure.
So a lot of our investment in whether it's transit
as a last resort or things like that is focused
on more of those rural communities.
So we were looking at equity from more of an income
and a rural perspective here in Placer County.
Thank you, that checks for me.
That's perfect.
Any public comment on this item?
There's no public comment on this item.
Thank you so much, really appreciate it.
Next up, approval of minutes
and meetings for compensation, Douglas.
Thank you, Chair.
Tabs four, five and six will be voted together.
Tab four is the approval of the minutes
for the December 4th, 5th, 2025 CTC meeting in Riverside.
Tab five is the commissioner's meeting for compensation.
Tab six is the committee members' compensation.
Staff recommends your approval.
Thank you.
Any public comment on this item?
There's been no request to comment on this item.
Thank you.
Is there a motion to approve?
So moved by commissioner Eger.
Is there a second?
So moved by, seconded by commissioner Tiffany.
All those in favor?
motion is approved. Item number seven. Commissioner Commission Executive Director report to nation.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the first Caledonia Transportation Commission
meeting of 2026. I'd like to start by congratulating Vice Chair Falcone and Commissioner Cruz for
being elected chair and vice chair and to thank Chair Grisby for serving as chair over
the last year.
As we begin our meeting today, I'd like to thank Matt Klik for welcoming us to the region
and for organizing this morning's tour, which reminded us the importance of safety for all.
We always appreciate the opportunity to visit the projects that Placer County is working
on here in the Commission's backyard.
I'd also like to take a moment to congratulate Senator Cortese for his reappointment to the
by Senate Pro Tem or Senate President Pro Tem Monique Lamone. We look forward to continuing to
work with you in your role as chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. I know we will hear more
from Director El-Tawansi shortly but I would also like to welcome Corey Benz, Caltrans's new Chief
Deputy Director. Today's agenda includes updates related to our Road Charge Technical Advisory
Committee and our Interagency Equity Advisory Committee. First, I'd like to welcome Luis
Quiñones to the Road Church Technical Advisory Committee, representing the California Foundation
for Commerce and Education. I would also like to congratulate the new and returning members
of the Equity Advisory Committee who will be presented for the Commission's approval
later today. Commissioners, where's John? There you are. Yes, commissioners, last week,
members of the Commission's senior staff and I attended the Cal State Leadership Summit
in Los Angeles. I know we will hear more from the secretary on this event but I
want to take this opportunity to recognize John Pray who received the
secretary's leadership award for his hard work for his hard work developing
the shop guidelines update and supporting the state's safety equity and
climate goals so congratulations John. During this meeting's agenda the
Commission will be asked to consider additional project allocations in the
shop. These actions are consistent with the allocation plan presented in
December, reflecting the fiscal strain on shop capacity this year. The strain
continues to be an acute concern for the future financial stability of the
program. Just as we just as we've discussed how growing major damage
restoration needs have pushed out shop products into future years, the
Commission will be asked once again to increase the major damage reservation in
in the shop by $200 million. This is the fourth consecutive year with emergency damage costs
nearing $1 billion. At the same time, the federal government recently announced its
intent to penalize California for issuing commercial driver's licenses to non-domicile
drivers by withholding nearly $160 million in federal highway funds. This penalty, which
would impact the upcoming 2026 shop will only make it more difficult to adequately repair
and maintain our highways. In addition to California's work to develop a sustainable
transportation funding mechanism, Congress must also provide secure, stable, ongoing
funding for our transportation infrastructure past the expiration of the infrastructure
investment and jobs act later this year. Later today, Caltrans will present the consensus
This principle develops with stakeholders for the federal surface transportation reauthorization.
We will continue to provide updates on the status of federal funding as developments
occur.
Looking ahead to February, the commission will host hearings on the draft 2026 shop
and state transportation improvement program on February 5 in San Diego.
These hearings will be held by a second hearing on the draft shop in Stockton on February
12.
In addition, Commission staff is continuing to hold workshops, continuing to hold workshops
on the updates to guidelines for the Senate Bill 1 competitive programs, including the
local partnership program, the solutions for congested corridors program, and the trade
corridor enhancement program.
Details and schedules for these hearings and workshops can be found on the Commission's
website.
Commissioners, I have a few staffing updates today.
Casey Moore Gutierrez has taken a new role supporting the engineering team's management
of the shop as well as taking the lead on updating the Commission's internal policies
and procedures.
Sheila Innes has stepped into the role of acting program manager for the state transportation
improvement program.
I'm pleased to announce that Teresa Papila is returning to the Commission as a retired
annuitant to support this upcoming STIP cycle.
And finally, a little bit of bad news, Vince Ma will be moving on from the Commission and
his role with the Legislation and Finance team to a new role in the private sector.
I'd like to congratulate our team members on their new roles and thank Vince for his
service to the Commission.
Commissioners, this concludes my report.
As a reminder, our next regular Commission meeting will be in Malibu on March 19th and
20th.
We are looking forward to visiting the Los Angeles region and hearing from our
partners in the area about the recovery efforts from last year's fires. Thank you.
Any public comment on this item? Would you not receive any requested comment on the item?
Thank you. Any questions, comments from the DICE? Hearing, Commissioner
Gardeno. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Vince, we just want to wish you well. Whatever the
role is I'm sure when you're allowed to tell us more specifics you will and thank you for
the great work you've done for our state.
Let's take our pictures.
All right.
Next up is item number eight, commissioner reports, any commissioners would like to make
a report at this time.
Vice chair focal.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I did want to take an opportunity to thank you chair grisby for the very gracious and
thoughtful nomination and for the support from one of my mentors commissioner eager.
I wanted to take the opportunity to comment on it and just to say I'm going to be taking
this very seriously I appreciate the faith that my my commissioner colleagues have placed
on me to serve you in this new role as well as the state of California and
really fostering continue to foster the partnerships that we have with all of
you in the regional partners our agency partners and uplifting the the
extraordinary work that our staff does I will be taking this very very seriously
and I look forward to working with you in this new role and somebody's going to
to fact check me on this, but I think it's been a while since San Diego's been represented in this
role, just saying, as well as the first woman in the region and maybe the first Asian American
serving in this role. So it is not light in my mind and it just means I have
work to do to really honor the work that we collectively do as it relates to transportation investments that fuel this very powerful economy and I'm very proud to be part of it.
I'm proud to be part of this institution and the work that we do. So, thank you.
All right. Any other commissioners Commissioner Cruz.
I just want to dovetail on those comments from Commissioner Falcone.
I want to thank you Chairman for your leadership of this commission.
I know and seeing firsthand your passion for transportation and your willingness to put
in the extra work because it is extra work when you're the chairman of this of this committee.
It's very honorable to be on it.
I look forward to continue to advance our goals and priorities, but I especially look
forward to working with the incoming chair as she takes over and I am fully confident
will do just as good a job.
So thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Any other commissioners like to make a comment, commissioner, Tiffany.
Yeah, I just want to quickly comment.
First of all, chair grizzby want to congratulate you on a great year.
I've been on the commission now for two years
and really enjoyed working, of course,
with all my commissioners.
But anyway, great job.
And I think the selection of my vice chair partner next to me
here, Commissioner Falcone and Commissioner Cruz
are great decisions.
And we represent the entire state.
And I think it's reflective of that,
that Darnell's from San Francisco area
and San Francisco Oakland area, I should say.
San Diego here and commissioner Cruz,
Joe's from, what, five minutes, no,
20 minutes away in Sacramento.
So we covered the entire state.
So kudos to the three of you,
looking forward to working with with you going forward. Thank you commissioner.
Any other commissioners like to comment question? All right. Hearing none,
any public comment on this item?
Would you not receive any requests to comment on the item? All right.
Thanks so much. Uh, next up,
we're going to hear from our Calisto secretary. Tooks almost shotgun.
Good afternoon everybody. Hopefully you can hear me, uh, very clearly.
I want to start off by uh commending our outgoing Chair Grisby uh for your service
over the last year. Uh as he noted his when he stepped into this it was a history making
uh appointment an exception to or vote or election to serve as the chair. So I just
want to thank you Chair Grisby for your time and tenure uh in leading this very important
Commission to the state of California. So thank you for your service. Also, I want
to congratulate Commissioner, Commissioner Falcone, who I've had a chance to
engage with on several occasions down in San Diego. Every time we come, become that
way, whether I was at Caltrans or at CalSTA, she's been just an amazing host
and she's a great transportation leader. So I'm looking forward to her leading
this Commission over the next year or even beyond that. So Commissioner
Falcone congratulations on your election. And finally the men to my left
Commissioner Cruz who I also enjoyed working with for for many years including
his work dealing with labor issues on many fronts Commissioner Cruz look
forward to your vice chair responsibility in this role as well so
Congratulations to you as well.
It's my first meeting with Commissioner Brown-Hines.
And so I'm excited to see you in person.
We got a chance to connect virtually
as you are coming on board.
So I'm really looking forward to,
heard so many good things about you
from the governor's office.
And so I'm really looking forward to your leadership
on the commission as well.
So congratulations as you continue this work.
Yes, so my presentation today,
I'm gonna try to be as brief as I can be,
but I wanna start off,
you could go to the next slide.
I wanna start off by a continued welcome here
to Julia Kingsley and a staff appointment
to our office at CalSTA.
She is now the new deputy secretary
for environmental policy and housing coordination.
Some of you may remember Darwin,
This is the job that he held. Governor Newsom recently appointed her to this role. Her main responsibility should be focused on reducing VMT, housing and working on housing and transportation coordination related to climate and resilience issues.
So if you get a chance to see Julia, please welcome her. She actually also has a background from the commission.
from 2020 to 2021, she was senior legislative aide
and also worked in the office of assembly member,
through her work in the office of assembly member,
Laura Friedman.
So look forward to her stepping into this role
and the work that she's gonna do.
So if you get a chance to see her,
please welcome her and congratulate her
in this new responsibility.
Next slide.
So I'm gonna go through the core four a little bit here.
And what I'm gonna try to just remind us of
without a ton of detail is what we accomplished
in the new sub administration in 2025
as it relates to the core four
and some of the things to look forward to in 2026.
Again, this is very high level.
Don't have a lot of time to go through these things
in detail, but if you could click next,
the left side of the screen should come up.
So just a few items here on things
that we accomplished in 2025.
I'll start off just mentioning a very important policy,
the Secretary's policy on road safety.
This is a new joint policy that we signed
with the health agency of the state.
So we're working in tandem to address issues related
to safety for Californians by embracing, continuing
to embrace the safe system approach,
with a goal to eliminate fatal and serious injuries
on the transportation system of the state.
This new policy is grounded in health principles.
The main goal of this new policy
is to see how we can reduce fatalities on our roadways
by the year 2035 by 30%, 30% by the year 2035.
That is a huge, huge undertaking
because that 30% is roughly 1,000 people.
So we wanna reduce fatalities by 1,000 people
in less than a decade.
And with the work that we're gonna be doing
with the health agency, I'm hoping,
I'm believing that we can get there.
We also launched a new state priority safety corridor project
where we've decided to identify three corridors in the state
that we're gonna try to make sure
we address the safety challenges on those corridors.
This is on the tails of what happened on PCH
when we lost the four young Pepperdine students
just two and a half years ago.
So we're taking everything that we learned from PCH,
taking them to three new corridors,
the top three corridors that we've identified
across the state of California.
The third one we will be launching,
we've launched two already,
the third one we will be launching next week
and it's Verna Road in district eight, I believe,
at Caltrends.
So we'll continue to again,
heighten our focus on safety on our roadways.
If you could click next,
we'll see some of the things
that we're gonna be focused on in 2026.
Calsta and Caltrends will work to deliver
a complete streets workshop with all of its executives and its 12 districts will be focused
on the why and the how of complete streets using DIB 94 to help us implement the next
steps on complete streets. This remains again a top priority seeing how Caltrans and CalSTIN
all the departments that are part of it can continue to embrace complete streets policies
now across the department. Also, we will be working to expand our efforts around the slowdown
and move over law. AB 390, effective January 2026, expands the law to protect all stationary
vehicles. Previous laws covered only emergency vehicles, tow trucks, and Caltrans vehicles
with flashing lights, AB 390 extends this rule
to any stopped vehicle displaying hazard lights.
Yeah, oh yeah, that's an applause.
Hazard lights, coals, flares,
or reflective warning devices.
So look out for our efforts to implement AB 390.
Let's keep moving, next slide.
So the climate action, if you could click again,
climate action again continues to be a key part
of our efforts around the core four some of the things that we accomplished in 2025 you see on
the screen there released the finalized the TTF the transit transformation task force report
capti 2.0 we finalized and released the sustainable communities track task force
was announced we also had a delegation from california go to africa where we now have two mous
And also, there's an EV expert pledge program that we're continuing to see advancement of
at the new Moto Vehicle Board. Just to touch on one or two of these very quickly from the
accomplishments list, the Sustainable Communities Task Force, I'm very appreciative of the service
of the people who have stepped up to serve on this task force, including our very own
Commissioner Lee Ann Eager, who's spending a lot of time with this task force to see how we can
continue to drive down VMT and greenhouse gas emissions across the state. Also with CAPTIE 2.0,
as we continue to move forward with it, we're building upon our efforts on CAPTIE 1.0.
CAPTIE 2.0 has 14 new actions, and it's our hope that by the time this administration
comes to an end, we would have accomplished all the things that we've outlined in CAPTIE
2.0 to accomplish. On the MOUs that I mentioned between California and African countries,
I was very fortunate to be a part of one of the sign-in ceremonies at New York City Climate Week,
where I was able to join Governor Newsom and President William Ruto of Kenya and
Gobi's director, Dee Dee Myers, and Cal EPA Secretary, Yana Garcia, as we signed an agreement
related to climate issues, climate needs, and economic development between California and Kenya.
This is a historic effort because California has never had a national agreement with an African
country since we've been signing these types of agreements for many years. And so it's, again,
a historic effort led by Governor Newsom to get this this new agreement signed with Kenya. And
we've also signed a very similar agreement with with Nigeria as well. So a big accomplishment
from last from 2025. Let's move on to next the for 2026 some of the things that we're looking to
that we're looking to accomplish. I mentioned already that CAPTIE 2.0 has 14 actions. We're
looking to tackle as many of those are accomplished tackling all of those in 20 in 2026. The Sustainable
Communities Task Force also implementing the actions that will come out of the report. There
are four more meetings that are coming from this Sustainable Communities Task Force, including
related to topics like pricing and highway capacity and lane conversion. Finally, next slide,
to equity. Chair Grisby mentioned as we got an update from our local leaders on the ground here,
Grisby mentioned equity and trying to understand what is happening related to equity. There were
There's so many things that we got accomplished related to equity in 2025, including at the
high speed rail. For those of you who may not be paying attention to the efforts around
this project's advancement, there's a lot going on, including the fact that in 2025
We brought on 83 new small businesses, 83, 27 of them are DBEs and as far as the amount
of money that we expended with these small businesses, the total is nearly a quarter
of a billion dollars, roughly $240 million that High Speed Rail was able to get out on
streets to DBEs, DVBEs, and small businesses. So that's a lot of advancement to continue to help
small businesses in the state of California, and that is outside of the work that Caltrans and the
CTC is doing. And speaking of the CTC, a lot of credit to the commission and Director Taylor and
staff was informed that more than two hundred and fifty three million dollars went to disadvantaged
communities through the ATP program alone in twenty twenty five two hundred and fifty
three so more than a quarter of a billion dollars through that program and overall through
all the discretionary grant programs of one point five billion dollars a lot of that money
also went to vulnerable and underserved communities.
So despite some of the challenges that we see in Washington
and that we continue to face around issues around equity
and supporting and helping underserved communities,
we continue to do our part in California.
So a major thank you to High Speed Rail, Caltrans,
and the CTC for continuing to focus
on these issues real good to everyone.
We also saw more advancement and work related
to clean California.
We now reach the total sum of more than 3.4 million cubic yards of litter being removed
from public spaces, more than 136,000 garbage trucks, 136,000 garbage trucks, what the litter
have been cleared.
More than 639 public art has been installed and 314 communities have seen improvements
because of the work related to clean California.
And more than 18,000 jobs, 18,000 jobs also created.
Next on what's to come in 2026 as it relates to equity,
I'm looking forward to the continued work
of the Equity Advisory Committee Task Force.
I know they were able to make a lot of advancements in 2025.
I'm thankful for all the people who serve
on this committee for the CTC Caltrans and CalSTA.
And one of the things that we will also continue
at Caltrans is the construction mentor protege program
that has helped to graduate several businesses
to help them learn how to do work with Caltrans
and businesses across the state.
Next slide.
economic prosperity. Just a few things on this that we accomplished in 2025.
We begin laying, if you could click next, laying track for, I mentioned some of
this already, for the high speed rail. Governor Newsom attended an event in
January of 2025 where we started the high speed rail track laying effort.
We're also hoping to do another event at some point
within the next week and a half related to further work
on lane track for the high-speed rail.
If you click next again for 2026, some of the things
that we're looking forward to.
Working with BNSF on a more than $100 million state
investment that supports the construction of 22,500 feet
of staging tracks on 11 miles of new triple track
for the mainline along the high desert corridor.
I look forward to this work with BNSF
and also continued work with the Port of Long Beach
on the Pier B Undock Rail project
that we funded with $383 million from the PFIP program.
So continued advancements on these two important rail projects.
And finally, around innovation.
Even though it's not a part of the core four,
there are so many things that we continue to address
around innovation, because California, of course,
is the innovation capital of this country.
And many people would argue around the world.
In 2025, Director L. Tawansi,
they helped select a new chief data and AI officer.
Chief data and AI officer.
So one of the few departments in the country,
transportation departments in the country
that now has an AI leader.
We also launched training for access to Microsoft CoPilot,
which is now available to more than 18,000 people on staff.
staff at Caltrans and across Calstead. We also advanced AI pilots related to
VRU, vulnerable road users, and also traffic management insights, TMI. So a lot
of advancements related to AI in the transportation space in 2025. This is
something that we all know we will continue to hear a lot about moving
forward in 2026. If you can click next. Uh, one of the key things that we're
looking forward to finally getting across the finish line is the adoption
of autonomous vehicle regulations. Autonomous vehicle regulations at the
Department of Motor Vehicles at the DMV. The DMV is entering the final phase of
revisiting its autonomous vehicle regulations. The latest version of the
proposed regulations were published for a 15-day public comment period on
January 21st. After analyzing the comments from this round and determining
whether additional changes are needed, the department will move to
finalize and implement the regulations in the spring of 2026. So this is a major
step that the DMV is taking and I know a lot of us are paying attention to
autonomous vehicles and the activities and the growth of AVs across the state.
So as you can see on your screen, there's a lot that we would do on the on the AV space
or the innovation space through the rest of 2026.
Finally on the last slide was mentioned already by Director Taylor.
We held our California Transportation Leadership Summit,
just last week in Los Angeles, with more than 150 attendees.
This was our fourth annual leadership summit
and the second annual leadership awards ceremony.
More than 17 or 17 people were identified
in providing great service to the state of California
Transportation and your very own John Pray. John Pray was one of the recipients of the
award. So John again congratulations on receiving this award. I'll mention just briefly and I'll
close some of the Caltrans recipients. Also Tasha Higgins, Eric Corona, Kevin Drabinski,
Andrew Carr and Becky Frank, from Caltrans, from Director Altawande's team, also receiving awards.
With that, that was a lot that I ran through. Quickly, I had a lot more information to share
in there, but again, thank you to the Commission for all the work that you are doing to support
the people of California and the Newsom administration and to staff as well and
and members of the audience,
let's continue to lean forward in 2026,
even though this is the last year of this administration,
I know there's a lot that this governor wants to accomplish
that I want to accomplish,
and together we can get it done for the people of the state.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Secretary.
We will now move on to public comment.
Is there any public comment on this item?
We did not receive any requests to comment on the item.
Thank you so much.
Any questions or comments from the dice?
hear none of vice chair Falcone Thank You mr. test test all right test there it
is thank you mr. secretary and and thank you for highlighting all of the 2025
accomplishments there was a lot and I would say we did it collectively
despite and and you know it's it's it's great that you're we're all focused on
just moving and progressing on on all of the priorities that that the
administration as well as all of us have kind of laid out and have committed to
working together I'm particularly interested in in continuing the work on
the D B E s and small business participation in, um, in building our infrastructure. And so, you know, with with the challenges that have befalled D B E s I'd be interested in your continuing policies that that help really advance the opportunities, especially for small businesses to participate in building our infrastructure.
right? Yes, Secretary. There we go. Thank you, Commissioner Falco. And look, I'll just
say briefly on this that this is one of the biggest challenges that we have in front of
us related to the direction that the folks in Washington want to go. Caltrans Director
El Tawansi and her team, David DeLoose, they now have a responsibility within the next
two weeks. We have to roll out our new plan related to what's called an interim final
rule around the DBE program, because the federal government recently announced late last year
in October of last year, they said, we can no longer use race and gender to help support
the DBE program that we've had in place for 40 plus years.
I think it was 1983 that the DBE program was created.
So this administration in Washington
is saying you can't use race and you can't use gender anymore.
It needs to be based on some other types of numbers.
So we have a new program that Caltrans has developed
based on Washington's position.
It's going to be challenging, but we
think we can continue to move forward, as you noted.
We need to continue to move forward here.
The upside, if there is any good news in any of this
all is that we also have a state law called SB 2019 that says 25 percent of
all contracting needs to go to small businesses and so despite the federal
law that's creating a lot of challenges for us we have a state law that has a
requirement that we can continue to implement efforts around that as well so
AB 2019 or SB 2019 will continue to help us as we look to implement the new
We're going to, uh, talk about
the federal federal guidelines.
But thank you, Commissioner
Falcon Falcon. Thank you. All
right. Thank you, Secretary.
Uh, next up. We'll hear from
Caltrans director, Dina Alta
onesie. Good afternoon,
everyone. I'm Dean Althansi and
I serve as Caltrans director.
Um, thank you for the
opportunity for me to provide
an update today. But before I
jump into the update, I just
would like to thank, um,
commissioner Falcon and commissioner Cruz as they assume their new chair and vice chair goals.
Next slide please.
I begin today with some important changes taking place within the Caltrans leadership circle.
Next slide.
I'm pleased to announce the appointment of Byron Lin as Caltrans first encampment program director.
Byron brings over 26 years of experience at Caltrans throughout the Bay Area.
He began his career in 1998 as a transportation engineer and structural construction,
later working in structural design and the Office of Structural Maintenance and Investigation.
After decades of work, wearing many hats both at Caltrans and abroad, Byron became District Force
Clean California Program Manager in 2021, leading key statewide initiatives. He also recently served
as the principal transportation engineer as assistant deputy director for field maintenance
in district four. In this new role, Byron will serve as the department's lead on encampment
programs, working closely with executive leadership and all 12 districts, directors to advocate,
to advance the mission, to maximize state resources, and to coordinate encampment
health care services. This
position at Caltrans is crucial
in supporting the ongoing work
of the governor's safe task
force and in strengthening our
shared work to keep people safe
and our transportation
infrastructure strong. So
congratulations to Byron. I'm
also excited to share that Cory
Bins has been appointed as
Caltrans new chief deputy
director on January 13th.
January 13th. Corey is a seasoned leader with over two decades at Caltrans where he held key
roles including deputy director of maintenance and operations and district 11 director. He also
brings private sector experience from flat iron construction and west schools general cooperation
as well as public service from Riverside County flood control. Corey is a proud veteran. He served
in the Navy Reserve Civil Engineer Corps from 1999 to 2006. He holds a Bachelor's of
Science degree in Civil Engineering from UC Irvine. Please join me in congratulating Corey and
welcoming him on board to his new role. I also want to take a moment, take this opportunity to
extend my sincere thanks to Dave Moore. Thank you Dave for your valuable leadership and dedication
during this transition is very much appreciated. Next slide please. Moving from employee excellence
to the ongoing work of improving safety across our state, I will share a couple of projects
that highlight progress made and progress to come. Next slide. I'm excited and honored to announce
Next slide please. I'm excited and honored to announce that State Route 1 in Big Sur has been
opened ahead of schedule after Rock Slides closed the rugged portion of the Scenic Highway in January
2023. This project has always been a priority as a significant and it's a significant project
towards improving connectivity and access to this dynamic corridor. This is by no
mean and easy construction projects. The rugged coast terrain is very steep. Unstable slopes
created significant engineering challenges. And I'm happy to say that this is probably one of
the first projects we deployed a lot of innovative technology in the construction methods. So we had
a lot of robotics and remote controlled equipment on that hill. Even just this month, a moderate rock
slides south of State Park closed access to regents slide itself following nearly two weeks
of heavy rain and significant runoff. Despite these conditions, Caltrans completed the work
safely and without any significant incidents. The slope is now stable and armored against future
erosion. Strategies to help with that included nearly 4,700 steel rods, and just to give you
a visual of that. That's about 50 miles continuous trot drilled and grouted into the mountain side.
While the recent train events led to mud and some rock on the road, the slope performed exceptionally
well. Opening Highway 1 reconnects these coastal communities once again and it's an important
economic driver not only for that region but also for the state as a whole. Our special thanks go to
the city of Toronto, the city of
that one thing that I really want to note on this particular project is the
excellent communication between Caltrans and the community, businesses and
partners, agencies and elected officials. This has been really a huge part of
our success. As we rebuild and respond to the aftermath of these severe weather
events, we do so with the knowledge that the conditions that lead to this slide
will become more common in the future. Then that's why Caltrans is really
building with a mindset of resiliency in mind. Next slide, please. Ensuring the ongoing safety
of the traveling public has been a major undertaking this winter with a series of
atmospheric rivers inundating nearly every corner of the state in late December and early January.
A significant winter storm delivers substantial rainfall in the north coast in District 1.
On Sunday December 21st rising water on US 101 submerged the highway four miles south of Eureka
in Humboldt County. With significant water accumulating across both northbound lanes of
the highway Caltrans closed the state highway to protect travelers from hazardous conditions
that threaten both life and property. This stretch of highway usually unaffected by flooding
is a vital road for travelers to Eureka and to the Bay Area. Without access many were cut off
from coastal and valley and valley communities. After the water receded the highway was carefully
assessed deemed safe for travelers and was reopened. Maintenance also worked very closely
with public affairs and alerting drivers regarding the road conditions ensuring that they had
information needed to make the best decisions about their travel. I want to pose here and
also reiterate and reaffirm our commitment to safety, both for our Caltrans employees and to
the public who depend on safe and efficient transportation networks. And speaking of safety
and I think the Secretary kind of alluded to that. On Tuesday of next week, I will join Secretary
Omashak and Commissioner Dury from CHP, our team in District 8 and the communities of Riverside
County to officially designate Verna Road as the new state priority safety corridor.
Next slide please. I want to also take a few minutes to spotlight exciting events that Caltrans
is preparing for Super Bowl 60 and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Next slide. Caltrans is committed to
ensuring safe, efficient and reliable transportation during major national and international events.
The Super Bowl on February 8th and the FIFA World Cup in June and early July are excellent
opportunities to showcase our transportation investments. Our proactive approach focuses
on working collaboratively with our local partners and agencies to maintain mobility,
minimize disruption, and support regional partners in managing increased traffic volumes
and communicating with the public, to safely manage higher traffic volumes and transportation
network usage. Our goal is to deliver a seamless travel experience for all who plan to travel
to the Bay Area and to Los Angeles to enjoy these exciting events. Some of the strategies
that we're deploying include implementing lane closure restrictions to support heightened
traffic demand, deployment of traffic system management strategies via changeable message
signs, and more importantly, engaging in proactive multilingual communication to provide advance
and real-time information for residents and visitors alike. I want to thank our amazing teams
in both district four and district seven for all the work that they're doing to help showcase our
state's transportation system to the nation and to the world. And as we celebrate the Superball
and the World Cup in 2026, our gaze remained fixed on the horizon for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los
Angeles. So more to come on that. Stay tuned. Next slide. The final section of my presentation
today will focus on policies Caltrans is developing which are all inspired by our clear vision of
thriving and connected California. Next slide. First, Caltrans is completed a new Caltrans policy
on transit which outlines the department's vision to support public transit on state highway system.
This policy supports the department's strategic safety, the strategic foundational principle of
safety, equity, prosperity, and climate action goals and establishes a framework for developing
transit priority projects on the system. This policy also aligns with Senate Bill 960,
which committed the department to playing a vital role in improving public transit.
Prior to this, Caltrans began focusing on transit prioritization with the establishment of
Director's Policy 36 on Road Safety and Director's Policy 37 on Complete Streets.
Now that we are finalizing the transit policy, staff will coordinate with stakeholders to develop
the transit implementation plan throughout the state. Additionally, Caltrans will create
a statewide transit technical advisory committee to ensure ongoing public input on transit topics.
This effort reflects our ongoing commitment to developing a multi-modal transportation network that ensures striving and connected California.
And we look forward to working with all involved stakeholders to further develop policies that serve.
Next slide, please.
Complementing our statewide policy developments on our efforts occurring with our counterparts on the federal level.
As you all know, the Infrastructure Investment and Job Acts is set to sunset this September of 2026,
and Congress is currently working on draft legislation to reauthorize federal service transportation programs.
Caltrans and CalSTA has been preparing for Agile reauthorization over the past two years,
and recently released the California Federal Service Transportation reauthorization principles
for public comments through February of 2027.
We are also inviting organizations that want to add their name
and coordinate their federal advocacy to join us as signatories to the document by July 31st.
Next slide. Finally, I want to share with you the work that is very that I take very seriously
and which directly impacts all of us who utilize the State Highway System. Our Office of Equity
and Tribal Affairs has finalized the draft of the latest update of the people and community
first action plan, formerly known as the race and equity action plan. The plan was developed
collaboratively with the office of civil rights, equal employment office, director's office on
sustainability, and the division of safety programs. While we're still working on finalizing
the people and community first action plan, districts and headquarters division have already
started implementing actions and recommendations from the plan. District 3 has hosted career
fairs focusing on expanding access and strengthening workforce pathways, building a stronger and
more inclusive transportation workforce. District 11 has begun recruiting members for its community
advisory board, signaling strong proactive leadership to extending community representation.
and District 4 will soon host a new Equity Expo focusing on strengthening relationship with staff,
partners, and community members. And more actions are taking shape as we speak strengthening Caltrans
commitment to growing equity to growing true equity and access and transportation. I want
to take a moment to thank our Deputy Director for Equity and Tribal Affairs, Nayila,
Pope Pardon, whom by the way was recognized yesterday by WTS Sacramento and was given
the award of Rosa Park diversity leadership awards for all her efforts. So please do give her a hand.
Yeah I want to thank Naile and the entire Equity and Tribal Affairs team for this urgently
necessary work and I look forward to sharing more details with you about the people and community
the first action plan and wants to have next time and with that I'll conclude my updates
and thank you for your time. I'm ready to take any questions. Yeah, excellent. Thank
you director for your presentation. Any public comment on this item? We don't receive any
request to comment on this item. Thank you. Questions, comments from the dice. Hearing
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not.
the district for team in their pre and his team could not have been more responsive to the mayor and the town's requests, and it just underscores the positive pro proactive professional nature of our team.
But just one more example that I wanted to thank you for.
All right, thank you. Any other commissioners have a question or comment.
Hearing none. Thank you, director.
Next up is Acting California Division Administrator
of FHWA Doug Hiko.
Did I pronounce that right?
Hikox, okay.
Okay, my apologies to everyone.
My first visit here, my first use of this technology.
Mr. Chair, Madam Chair-Elect,
members of the commission, thank you.
It's great to be here with you today.
I am joined today by my colleague and supervisor,
Ms. Alyssa Conove, she's the Federal Highway Administration's acting director of field
services for the western 12 states. That means she's not only my boss, but she oversees a
dozen other states. She's a very busy person. So on behalf of Ms. Conove and all of the
men and women of the Federal Highway Administration here in California, I want to thank each of
you for helping us improve America's roadway architecture. I also want to thank Caltrans
Director Dina El-Tawansi and all of the people at Caltrans. They have continued to be reliable
and extremely innovative partners to us. Together, we are making great progress on everything from
expanding Wi-Fi access throughout the state with the broadband middle-mile project, to advancing a
badly needed seismic retrofit of the Golden Gate Bridge, furthering the nation's newest land entry
at Otay Mesa, and helping Southern California prepare for the upcoming 2028 Olympic and Paralympic
Games. Working together, we are also advancing roadway safety for all Californians. Safety is
up to all of us and progress is being made. Over the last two decades, the Federal Highway
Administration and its state and local partners all over the country have helped to reduce
fatal crashes nationwide. Sadly, highway work zone fatalities have increased by more than
50 percent in that same period. Our leadership is committed to building American infrastructure,
world class roads and bridges that move our products, that connect our communities, and
that unite our citizens.
To make this possible, we depend on highway workers,
and they depend on all of us to keep their workplaces safe.
We're exploring new ways to build better, bigger,
and faster, and more cost-effectively.
It often takes too long to build projects, and time is money.
Project delays not only add cost and labor,
but changing market conditions can increase market prices
for everything from concrete to steel to asphalt.
delay inflates project costs,
and we can no longer afford it.
Finding more efficient means to get from project concept
to project design to project completion
is a top priority for all of us.
With your help, we will continue to work with you
towards safer roads, in cities,
in rural towns and townships.
We owe our fellow Americans a safer drive home,
a safer bus ride to school.
We will continue to serve the public
to the best of our ability.
We will reduce government waste
and continue to promote innovation.
Above all, we will continue our work
to keep America's roads safe.
Everyone deserves to get home safely.
And with your help, they will.
Thank you for your time.
Any public comments on this item?
We did not receive any requests.
Comment on the item.
All right, thank you.
Anything from the dais?
Question, comment?
Hearing none, thank you so much for that report.
We will now take a 10-minute break.
Thank you.
Alrighty, it looks like we have a quorum,
so we're gonna keep going.
Let's go to item 12,
regional agencies moderator, Luis Zal.
Wish, okay, thank you.
Alright, that was a good play.
I was ready and then he called the break.
Good afternoon, Chair Grisby, Chair-elect Falcon,
Vice Chair-elect Cruz, Executive Director Taylor,
Director El Tawansi, Secretary O'Mashokin,
commissioner's I'm Louis Jow with the Orange County Transportation Authority
and I'm serving as this year's RTP a moderator. First off thank you chair
Grisby for your leadership and willingness to listen to us it's been
helpful this year and congratulations to chair-elect Valcom and vice chair-elect
Cruz. Look forward to working with both of you this year. The RTP is met
yesterday and we were graciously hosted by the Sacramento Area Council of
Governments and while we started the year strong we have a number of
challenges I'm going to highlight as part of this my talking points and
remarks. Executive Director Taylor mentioned the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration and DOT's intent to withhold federal transportation funds
with an estimated impact about 158 million dollars across some of the most
flexible fund sources that we have and Caltrans in the regions typically uses
to deliver many vital transportation projects and while there's still a lot
of unknowns and questions which we talked about yesterday we're encouraged
to hear that Caltrans will continue to provide updates and collectively
navigate the challenge with us on a toll credit fund. I mentioned this in
December. This continues to be a challenge for many of the transportation
agencies. A toll credit availability is extremely low, and many agencies
relying these toll credits to maximize the use of federal funds. Transit
agencies, like my own at us today, we use that to maximize the use of those
funds for transit operations. This past month, many of us can program our funds with due to the lack of
availability of toll credits. However, the RTP is are encouraged to hear that Caltrans has been developing a policy to distribute
existing toll credits while also trying to seek additional toll credits from the federal government. Next, the California Federal
reauthorization principles received an update from Caltrans on these principles. The RTP is our supportive of efforts to streamline
and also stabilize and protect transportation funds.
We look forward to providing additional comments
before the close of the comment period.
On SB1, just wanna thank Matthew, oh, he disappeared.
Matthew and the SB1 team, further workshops,
this gives us an opportunity to really give feedback
and address our concerns.
We look forward to continued engagement
with commission staff.
And finally, we wish to congratulate Rachel Marricone
the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission. I don't know if she's here today. She was also a
prior or former RTA moderator. For 28 years of service, we wish her a happy retirement.
That concludes my remarks. I'd be happy to answer any questions.
All right, excellent. Apologies, technology. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
Any public comment on this item? We did not receive any request to comment on the item.
all right excellent uh questions comments from today uh commissioner ellie thank you good afternoon
um question for you you mentioned at the top of your presentation there was a 158 million dollars
in impacts from federal withholdings and illegal fund seizures could you just build on that a little
bit more if you have that information available thank you uh commissioner elliot so 158 million
dollars tied to the NHPP and the SCBG funds.
STBG funds are typically our most flexible fund sources. Many agencies use
it for multiple kind of layers. We can use it for say planning studies, maybe
sometimes transit. A lot of times we can use it towards say active
transportation alike. So there are a number of projects that are going to be
impacted by that. I think we can spread it across the state. You know each agency
may receive a small amount of an impact but across the board you're still
We're going to see projects being dropped off.
Director Taylor, I saw you move your mic.
I wasn't sure if you wanted to address it.
Thanks for that.
I would love to, at some point, we don't have to do it now
because I don't want to put you on spot for the whole state.
But I would love to understand what those practical impacts
might, in fact, be.
Because if there are funds being illegally
withheld by the federal government,
and that has impacts on, you mentioned ATP,
among other things.
So if there are pedestrian safety projects that
are being impacted, that's a thing
that I think the public ought to know about,
but I'll leave it at that and we're happy to,
oh, well, it looks like we're gonna have
some more conversation.
Good afternoon, key thunking budgets.
I was gonna provide an update
during the budget allocation capacity, if that's okay.
I'll save Lewis from some time.
Okay, sorry.
That was a wonderful call of the bullpen.
And thank you very much for your answers.
All right, and before you leave,
I'll just make the point that,
I don't know if you have economic analysis
or ideas of what the impact might be,
just doing it back of the envelope,
maybe four to one, maybe $600 million economic impact
from that withholding.
I mean, do you have any ideas on what that number might be?
Is anyone working on that?
There we go.
This technology is challenging.
Sorry, I don't have the number on top of my head.
I could work with the regions
as kind of look at that impact.
I know that Caltrans is also working on that impact as well.
Still a lot of questions,
still a lot of things are trying to navigate on that front. Excellent because
it is economic warfare against state so excellent thank you so much for your
your help. Any public comment on this item? No there's no request to comment on
the item. All right anything else from the dais? All right thank you so much
really appreciate it. Next up Aaron Hoyt, rural counties task force chair. Okay
yep I got the right button that's great well good afternoon chair grisbee
commissioners, Secretary Okima-Ommashakan, Director El-Tawansi, Executive Director Taylor,
and congratulations to Commissioner Falcone and Cruz on your new appointments.
My name is Aaron Hoyt. I'm the Deputy Executive Director for the Nevada County Transportation
Commission and Chair for the Rural Counties Task Force. We last met with the Caltrans and CTC staff
January 23rd at our last meeting. We had two special presentations in addition to
regular updates from staff. The first presentation we had was from Eric
Wright's at Caltrans on the changes to the low-carbon transit operations
program resulting from SB 840. Eric Wright's walked us through some of the
changes that we're anticipating first that we'll anticipate seeing this year
with procedural changes and requesting the funds, a reduction in revenue
estimates for the local transit operators to deliver projects, offer free fare programs,
and also new services. But I do want to thank Eric for his presentation and trying to smooth out
a process that typically is one application where now this year we'll see two. We also received a
presentation from Sarah Rosen at Caltrans on the Caltrans community engagement playbook
that will highlight the best practices engaging the public. So you know one of the things that we
continually hear hear and discuss is how did we engage the public or maybe the
public is not as supportive as a project or we you know find challenges
down the road and it's such a critical part to what we do that I think this
playbooks timely and it'll be helpful for all the regions to collectively be
able to continue to raise the bar and what we're already doing and find
better ways to engage a public. We also heard from CTC staff on the SB1
competitive guidelines that are currently under development, future update to the
transportation needs assessment, and the schedule for the STIP hearings. I'd like
to take this time though to really thank on your own Bakker and the whole active
transportation program team for leading and engaging the regions on another
update to the active transportation guidelines that are currently in draft
form. It's always really a pleasure to work with your staff. We also heard from
our partners at Caltrans who shared updates on the 53 federal transit
administration 5310 awardees that are going to be on the agenda as well today
5310 offers operations and capital funding for rural transit operators is
critical to continuing to offer services within our rural regions. We also
discussed obligation plans and the federal and state budgets. So in closing
the RCTF is always thankful for our Caltrans and CTC partners and engaging
with us and sharing updates. So with that I'd like to thank you for the
opportunity to present today. Excellent, thank you so much. Any public comment on
this item? We did not receive any request comment on the item. Thank you so much.
Questions or comments from the dais? Hearing none, thank you so much. Really
appreciate it. Next up, Keith Dunn, Self Help Counties. Good afternoon. Good
action. Thank you so much.
Good afternoon, chair Keith done
self help counties coalition.
Thank you, commissioners
secretary and director for the
opportunity to be here today.
I'll be relatively quick. I do
want to comment on some positive
steps that's been taking place
in the state of California to
address some of the cost
concerns that we all face
within our projects. First of
all, I want to commend the
governor and the legislature and
many in this room for the
extension of what we used to call
cap and trade to now being cap
and invest. It's going to
also very excited about opportunities to do some streamlining whether it's from
a CEQA streamlining that I think that is going to be coming to us soon on a
statewide basis to other opportunities to look at how we continue to connect
housing with transportation opportunities. Economic warfare, let me
tell you as a self-help County there's no better friend of the state of
California than the 25 counties that have voted to tax themselves to help
contribute to that economic engine that is the state of California. We're to
continue to look at opportunities to expand and increase and deliver which
means we need to look at some of the ways that we're being stopped and have
those cost drivers on projects whether it's third-party utility relocation of
services whether it's other opportunities to interact with state
players that have agency of their own and I mean specifically some railroads
that that sometimes need to have a broader discussion about the impact that
their industries have on our state so those are some of the issue areas that
self-help counties are going to focus on. I also want to mention we'll be meeting with the Director
in the next month or so and talking about other opportunities to partner. About 12 years ago,
the self-help counties authored and sponsored AB 194 which provided tolling for the state of
California. We want to continue to make sure that that program is able to work appropriately
and provide the resources and benefits that were originally identified when that bill was
introduced and signed into law at the request of the self-help counties.
So again, I want to reiterate that as we have a challenging interaction with our federal
government, you have local governments and local citizens in our counties who are standing
with the state of California providing resources.
We're here to partner with you, but we need to make sure that we're allowed to continue
to do that.
We're going to be defining some issues to make sure that ability continues in the near
future and we look forward to continuing to partner with the CTC and your wonderful staff.
Thank you.
We really have one microphone at a time, apparently.
Thank you so much for your comments and particularly for me, the utilities are all roast up.
You mentioned critical.
Thank you.
Any public comment on this item?
No, we never see even a request comment on the item.
All right.
Thank you.
I see Commissioner Gordino has a comment.
Thank you, chair, crispy key.
Thank you for the update 2026, will we be expecting any of our counties to be trying
to pass an initial measure or a renewed measure?
if so which ones? Well you know I think those discussions are ongoing and
there's today in our modern era opportunities to have those measures
looked at from many different sectors. I know that there are communities within
various counties who are contemplating whether or not citizens would want to
take that measure. I'm not officially a part of any of those efforts but I know
they're taking place because I know some of the people who are having those
discussions. You know I think counties in general the two-thirds vote is
extraordinary. We have 25 counties that have done it, some have done it multiple
times. Right now we don't have a countywide effort that is currently on
the books. There's some regional things that may or may not take place that I'm
sure you're aware of. But you know education is the key no matter what and
I think it's like coming upon all of us here to continue to talk about the
benefits and the long drag on the economy that transportation infrastructure
has whether it's transit, highways, or other airports, marine vessels or others.
So nothing County specific but I can tell you that there's a lot of dialogues
and some decisions that we may made in the near future. Alright thank you any
other questions? Thank you Keith again for all you do and your coalition. Next
up we're going to go to equity initiatives. Sasha. Good afternoon
commissioners tab 15 features our standing equity initiatives update
starting with an EAC member highlight,
as well as an action item to approve new members.
You speak directly into the microphone.
Thank you.
To approve new members for the 2026 through 2028 term.
We'll start by hearing an EAC member spotlight
from Gloria Huerta.
Hello, my name is Gloria Huerta.
Can you hear me, Marga?
Okay.
I have been working with the NIOCAR since 2019.
My first day on the job was going to community meetings
in the Tulare and Kern County regions of California
to talk about what is car sharing,
what is electric vehicles,
what are they gonna be doing in our communities?
So going to this community meetings
and getting input from residents
about what we should name the program
and the pricing was really great.
So MeoCar started in 2019.
we were incorporated into a nonprofit later on,
in early 2020.
And we first launched in Tulare and Kern counties
with 30 electric vehicles.
I used to wear a lot of different hats.
I started off as a project coordinator,
managing 30 vehicles between the two regions,
the distance between our nearest site and furthest sites
at the beginning was around two hours.
So if there were any issues after hours,
I was the on-call person going and managing the fleet.
Throughout the years, we had expanded services
to Richmond, Stockton, Watsonville, and Tracy.
And next slide, please.
I'm happy to share the stats that we have.
They're a little, they're not updated.
So I'm really happy to share that from 2019 to 2025,
We have, our members have traveled over a million miles on electric vehicles.
We've had over 11,000 bookings and hours of usage over 119,000.
Next slide, please.
When I'm not working on MioCar, I am on the board of Zebcoab,
which is another car share operator in Seattle.
I'm also providing consulting services to them.
They started a few years ago, so it's more like a partnership.
I also sit on the board of Shared Mobility Inc.
It's a bike share organization based out of Buffalo, New York,
and currently working with a new operator out of Buffalo, New
York.
their car share is going to be called Light City Car Share.
I am also co-lead on the car share working group
for the Clean Mobility Equity Alliance,
and recently will be part of the LatinX's
and Sustainability External Advisory Board.
And when I'm not doing any of these things,
I did grow up in a rural unincorporated community
in Tularee County called Orosi, two main streets.
people still use horses sometimes
as their mode of transportation.
So when I'm not doing any of these other leadership roles,
I go to our yearly career day.
Think it's important to take the vehicles,
show the students that they can have access
to whatever they want.
And I'm also a member of the EAC.
Thank you.
Thank you, Gloria.
Next, we'll hear brief remarks
from EAC chair, Martha Armis Kelly.
here today. You think I learned
by now. Good afternoon.
Exciting morning. Um I just
wanted to take a moment to
thank everyone here today. This
is my last meeting as your
equity advisory chair, and it
has truly been an honor to
serve alongside you. Our work
has had many components. And.
part of the vision and mission statement had a lot to do with community and
community-led and driven opportunities and how we would like to have better
community engagement but my favorite part of the whole vision and mission
statement was the safety and climate component and as we heard this morning
by Secretary Tocks-Omashakan it's so important to have safety every day there
our people on the road that trust us to provide a safe thoroughfare. And this last year, there
was a gentleman that was a cadet with the Highway Patrol. His name was Abraham Bustos.
And if you noticed on our vision and mission statement, we took a picture of Abraham Bustos.
And he was lively, alive and happy doing what he was doing in his efforts to become a Highway
patrol agent. However, his life was taken on Highway 99 because of just what we just
heard today, the idea of making everyone safe. And his family is a family that respects
and loves our estate and admires the work that he was looking to endeavor. And I was
asked if I could include his picture and we didn't include his picture in the vision and mission
statement and now I am really happy to be able to report back that we have actually passed a law
that is going to help and ensure that no one else will have that happen to them as well.
So I want to thank you for the opportunity of being part of this because my voice had not been
heard had I not been part of this. In the last three years I've been able to share time,
break bread with you all and really look at the work that you do. It's very easy for folks
on the other side to say, why is there not a stop sign on the road, right? But only you know,
and my job now is to really make sure that I become that conduit of relaying that information
to my community and to others so that they understand that there's a lot of process work.
the cogs may be slow moving but they are moving and today was just that. I was able to see those
cogs move and I'm very proud to be part of this. I caution you I'm not going anywhere I'm going to
stay and I'm going to continue doing more work but I hope that we elect a new chair. I do hope to
apply for a vice chair because I feel that that is an opportunity for me to vacillate a little more
but I do want to tell you that the group that we have and the groups that are coming in,
the people that are coming in, are excited and they're motivated to participate with you all.
And I hope that you continue being who you are, that you've been helpful to me, you've shaped me
and you molded me into understanding so much more about transportation. And I hope to carry that on
to my community and to the state. So thank you. Thank you, Martha. I'll now share a quick overview
of a member recruitment process and share the interagency recommendations. Next slide, please.
Membership criteria require that members reside in California,
demonstrate a history of equity-centered personal or professional experience or community
leadership, and be actively engaged in transportation equity policy, programming,
advocacy, or related fields such as health, air quality, climate, housing justice, or community
in socioeconomic development.
Applications were open for six weeks, from September 8 through October 19, 2025.
Outreach included a CalSA press release, agency newsletters, and websites and social media,
with additional distribution through Caltrans District equity leads.
We received 39 applications, 22 of which were scored.
Of the 17 unscored applications, 10 were from state employees and 7 were incomplete.
Future recruitment will clarify eligibility earlier to reduce incomplete or ineligible
submissions. For the upcoming term, there are four open seats, three due to expiring terms
and one due to a member relocating out of state. The three members with expiring terms reapplied.
Members may serve up to three consecutive two-year terms.
Applicants represented a broad range of identities, geographies, and professional and civic backgrounds.
Districts 3, Marysville, Sacramento, and 4, Bay Area, Oakland, remain the most engaged in the application process.
This application round, and in 2024, no applications were received from Districts 2, Reading, or 9, Bishop.
Moving to district-based tracking has allowed staff to better identify areas with low engagement
and focus future outreach efforts.
In the next recruitment cycle, staff plan to partner with regional transportation agencies
to strengthen outreach in underrepresented districts statewide.
Next slide, please.
This slide reflects applicants' self-identified demographics and is consistent with prior
recruitment cycles.
can either identify with these demographics or represent communities that do. Underrepresentation
remains among rural, farm, or agricultural workers, tribal members, and labor. As we move into 2026,
staff will prioritize partnerships to elevate perspectives from these groups and build
stronger interests and committee participation. Next slide, please. Staff collaborated with staff
from LA Metro and the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments to review redacted
applications. Applicants written responses were evaluated using a qualitative ranking of well
qualified, qualified, or not qualified. EAC lead staff also assessed geography, demographics,
and a professional or civic experience. 17 applicants were invited to interviews,
15 completed interviews, and reference checks were conducted for the top nine candidates.
Next slide, please.
Interagency staff recommend four candidates for the 2026 through 2028 term, with approval
from executives at all three agencies.
Anthony Gittens resides in the Inland Empire and works primarily in districts 7 and 12.
He brings public health, program planning, and equity-focused systems experience.
Gloria Huerta resides in Sacramento and currently serves on the committee.
She brings expertise in rural, shared mobility and lived experience from her leadership at
a nonprofit car share organization.
Andres Ramirez resides in and represents Los Angeles and currently serves on the committee.
He brings a strong mobility justice perspective and institutional knowledge of the committee.
Michelle Rousey resides in and represents Oakland and the Bay Area and currently serves
on the committee.
brings lived experience and deep expertise in disability and accessibility transportation
policy. Next slide please. Including these candidates improves statewide representation,
adding coverage in districts 5 and 12, and strengthening representation in district 7.
Future outreach will continue to focus on districts with low engagement through collaboration with
Caltrans districts and regional partners. With that, staff recommends your approval of the
the 2026 through 2028 EAC membership recommendations,
and I am happy to answer any questions.
Thank you so much.
Any public comment on this item?
I've received one written comment from Michelle Rousey,
who writes, EAC is a wonderful committee.
Thank you for my reappointment.
Beyond that, we have no other question comments.
All right, thank you so much.
Turning to the dais, questions, comments?
See Commissioner Mann.
Thank you so much for that,
Thank you so much for the work that's been done
around this committee.
And I know the team has done so much work
in terms of outreach, and I really appreciate
the breakdown and analysis to really understand
where the numbers are lower and what to do differently.
So the focus and commitment to work
with the regional transportation agencies in the future
makes a lot of sense, and so I appreciate that step.
I would look in terms of your numbers
when you look at level of engagement of not just what
the raw number is, i.e.
that there is zero applications coming
from a specific district, but what those numbers look like
given the population size within a district.
So just looking at what's happening in the LA area,
those numbers are still fairly low,
seeing that that's like 25% of the state.
And really, can we get those numbers up a little bit higher?
I know that means more work on the back end
to have to go through those applications.
But I do appreciate all the work that's been done
and the commitment to have really great representation
seeing as this committee is so critical
to so many of the efforts.
So thank you so much.
Okay, Commissioner, Commissioner Eager.
I just had a question on one of the slides.
You had priority populations.
What is a priority population?
I think it's back, another one.
Yeah, oh, right there.
Oh, no, there we go.
Yes, that definition aligns with SB 535,
priority populations kind of quantifications
that we started using when Amar said was working with us
because she kind of aligned, wanted to align it
with an existing piece of legislation
that helped us narrow down priority populations.
Does that make sense?
Maybe I can have a little bit.
So FP535 is more famously known as
Kalan by risking communities.
Thank you, Tamisha.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you for the edification.
Any other questions or comments from the dais?
Carrying none.
Thank you so much.
Can you both carry?
Oh, both, yes sir.
Is there a motion?
So moved by Commissioner Eager,
seconded by Commissioner Cruz.
Thank you.
Seeing your moment.
All those in favor?
Opposed?
Abstentions?
Motion is approved.
Next up, state federal affairs, Justin Barons.
Oh, Commissioner Tiffany.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I just wanted to recognize Martha
for a great year of work, congratulations.
You know, Martha's always there and very enthusiastic
and we really appreciate what you've done
for the committee.
Looking forward to working with you going forward as well.
So thank you.
Absolutely, and I concur in that.
Thank you for your work.
So next up, Justin Barron, item 16.
I'm told this is on, can you hear me okay?
Great. Commissioners tab 16 is the report on state and federal legislative matters. The Senate and
Assembly returned from recess earlier this month to consider bills that were introduced in the first
year of the legislative session and staff is not recommending the commission adopt any positions
on bills at this time. We will continue to monitor bills and report out on bills that are introduced
between now and the introduction deadline on February 20th. The governor also submitted his
proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-27 earlier in January. The budget does not
propose any major changes to spending levels for the Commission's funding
programs, but staff continues to monitor proposals related to providing short-term
loans to Bay Area transit operators and creating a tax credit for the
production of sustainable aviation fuel backed by the diesel excise tax. Congress
is currently considering a consolidated appropriations bill that includes funding
for federal transportation programs for the remainder of the federal
fiscal year. And the current version of the appropriations bill retains the bulk of spending
authorized under the infrastructure investment and jobs act with some reductions to programs
funding transit and inner city rail. And we will also hear more about on the discussions
around the federal surface transportation reauthorization later on today's agenda. And
this concludes my report. All right. Thank you, Justin. Any public comment? There was
no request to comment on the item. Thank you. Questions, comments from the dice? Hearing
thank you Justin. Next up is item 17 Vincent. Commissioners, tab 17 is an
informational item for the budget and allocation capacity and will be
presented by Keith Duncan from Caltrans Budget. There we go. Thank you Vincent.
Chair, commissioners, good afternoon, happy Thursday. As mentioned Keith Duncan,
Caltrans Budgets and I'll be presenting tab 17 for the budget and allocation
capacity update with an update on the federal motor carriers safety
administration in a few minutes. Next slide. As we begin related to Commission
activities through the month of December the Commission is allocated 4.2 billion
dollars onto 461 projects across all programs within your purview. Next slide
please. Here as we try to do every this latter half of the each fiscal year just
to show a comparison how this current fiscal year compares to prior fiscal years.
This table here is just showing percent allocated through the year.
You can see the current years represented by that reddish orange line from a percent
allocated we are exceeding current transfer exceeding the prior three years.
So that's great progress being made there.
Next slide, please.
And here just showing total dollars allocated.
We are a little lower than where we were roughly two years ago, but a little higher than we
our last year so again training upward which is a good thing. Next slide please.
As we try we will try to do as when it comes to every commission meeting try to
just show the total table when it comes to available dollars across all programs
within your purview. We are 50% through the fiscal year through the end of
December and as you can see the shop is at around the 75% and that's why we are
working off an allocation plan but as you can see we do have a few programs
that are a bit below that. We'll continue to monitor those and report back to you if there's
any concerns or risks that we may see from a fiscal perspective. Next slide, please. Next,
a quick update regarding departmental activities. When it comes to the G-12 authority, the G-12 is
a delegated authority by the commission to the department to make adjustments, minor adjustments
to project allocations. In total, the department has made 100 adjustments to 155 projects that has
resulted in a net savings of about 386 million dollars. I do want to highlight
for the shop the state highway operation protection program there that you see
the increases but specifically for the decreases we have made adjustments to
153 projects and a bid savings of roughly 386 million dollars. Usually
that's the bid savings we would see for an entire fiscal year so after six
months for seeing a sizeable amount. That savings provides a little more fiscal
relief when it comes to the SHA. I mean I'll touch on that in a moment as well.
But again we're looking at that we'll continue to monitor that and report that
back to you. Next slide please. And a few budgetary fiscal updates. Justin already
touched on it. The proposed 2026-27 governor's budget was released on
January 9th and the proposed budget does maintain the entirety of the
transportation package that was has been included in recent budgets. The Fund
topic, the United States Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration has issued a penalty to the state of California. I do
want to provide a little more background. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, I can't even say the acronym, that is not an entity that we
within will say the state's transportation infrastructure area really
interact with. Our primary entities are Federal Highway Administration, Federal
Transit Administration, Federal Rail. The FMCSA, they primarily interact with our
friends at Highway Patrol and in this case the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Earlier this month, they cited California or made a determination of
non-compliance when it came to the issuance of commercial driver's licenses,
roughly 17,000 commercial drivers licenses. Within the federal statute, if the
FMCSA has issued that determination, they are allowed to penalize the state,
their formula funds, their Federal Highway Administration formula funds, and
that penalty is four percent of the two largest programs we have, the National
Highway Performance Program and the Surface Transportation Block Grant
program. That 4% equates about to $158.3 million. What we do know is that penalty won't be
assessed until next federal fiscal year. We know it's going to be $158.3 million. There
are no details about how this penalty is going to be assessed across those penalties. We've
run a variety of drills, whether it's going to be 100% to how much of it's going to hit
the state primarily the shop or local agencies we've run different drills
where it comes down to is it going to be a percent to each of the sub programs
for each of the programs which I believe a commissioner Elliott asked about the
active transportation program that's where the transportation alternative
programs funded from showed there is a risk there but we don't have a lot of
details because they're not giving us a lot at this point we just know that the
penalty being assessed is for next year typically we won't find out much
information when it comes to next year's funding until the new federal fiscal year begins in October.
As we get more information, we'll be happy to feed that information to you.
Let's see what else. Oh, and the fun part, if the FMCSA, yes, silly acronym, sorry,
if in because that's a year one penalty, if they find us if they find a non non-compliance
in year two, that penalty doubles. So that would become $316 million or 8% across the programs.
So there is a continued risk for us there. We're aware that our friends at Department of Motor
Vehicles continue to work with this entity to try to remedy this. And I know the administration is
evaluating what options we may have. So there's a fun one. And then as an update, as Executive
Director Taylor already mentioned, the shop allocation plan, the allocations that are being
brought to you today, tomorrow are compliant with that plan that we submitted to you and
represented to you in December. We have bid savings so that does provide some financial
boost and there is an increase in the emergency reservation. Unfortunately emergencies continue
but that bid savings does help offset some of that. Next slide please. As we look ahead,
January now, Saturday, I think is when the continuing resolution is set to end.
We don't know what's going on. Justin did a great job providing his update when it comes to what
Congress is looking at. Even if the continuing resolution ends and we don't get a new budget or
there isn't a second continuing resolution, we will continue to work with our friends at California
Federal Highway Administration to continue to get authorizations and obligations onto our projects.
looking into March in a few moments my friend Garrett Franklin will be presenting the draft
2027 active transportation fund estimate. So in March he'll return and present the final
for your potential adoption and then as we look to May that'll be the release of the May revise
for the Governor's proposed budget and the special focus there is continue to look at the
state's general fund condition. Next slide please. As we enjoy the great work that our maintenance
as well. I did. Thank you so
much for that. I think this
forces in district three
maintenance do when it comes to
clearing snow outside of South
Lake Tahoe. I do want to offer
my thanks to CTC staff. Our
Caltrans financial programming
and our Caltrans budgets team.
I always say it's a team effort
when it comes to managing the
billions that comes across your
desks. So we appreciate
everyone's great work, and I'm
available for any questions,
you math. All right. Thanks so
much. Um, any public comment on
You know, I'm not sure how to
think about that, but, um,
I'm not sure how to think about
that, but, um,
I'm glad to hear from you and
commissioner Elliott.
Thanks. I have a couple of
questions. Um,
Get, I'll start question for you.
And I'm wondering if our,
if Mr. Hickox is still here,
because I appreciate their
perspective on, uh, some,
some of the things you've just
raised. So if he's still here,
if you wouldn't mind making your
way over here, um,
which programs do the fund
sorry, okay, let's flip back and forth here.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration,
they typically provide funding for operations
within CHP and DMV.
They do not provide funding
for our transportation infrastructure.
So we can get more information
on their specific funding sources.
CHP and DMV sounds like safety-related issues.
So, again, if our friends from the federal government
are still here, be interested in the perspective
on why choking safety in California to make a political
point. So I'd be interested in an answer to that question.
If our friends from the federal government are still here.
I believe they've left commissioner Elliott,
but we can certainly follow up with them on that question.
Yeah. We just expand.
We have worked with our friends from the California division
and we've asked for details about it.
They are also trying to seek details so we can try to get a
little more information, but I,
we can definitely share some more.
Sure. I'm out of my depth a little bit here,
but I do understand that the state of California has taken
pro-active steps to protect the safety and integrity of that program.
So, again, it's a question of why would the federal government want to
imperil safety for 40 million Americans, Californians are Americans,
why the federal government would want to imperil safety for 40 million
Americans to make a political point when the state is, in fact,
moving forward with its responsibilities?
I will leave that question rhetorically for our friends in the federal
government if they choose to come and have a conversation.
And instead of doing this through Twitter.
Thank you, Commissioner Elliott. Any other questions, comments from the dais? Hearing none, thank you so much, Keith.
Next up, we're going to move to item 18, federal surface transportation reauthorization. Benjamin.
Good afternoon, commissioners. Table 18 is an action item. Please note the revised issue and recommendation on the change list.
Andrew Carhart from the Caltrans Office of the Federal Liaison will present the Draft California Federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization Principles.
This document will serve as a foundation for a coordinated federal advocacy strategy to ensure that California's priorities are represented in the drafting of the next Federal Surface Transportation Act.
Upon presentation of the draft principles, staff recommends that the Commission direct staff to provide feedback to Caltrans on the Draft California Federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization Principles
document based on comments received during the public comment period.
I will now turn it over to Andrew Carhart for his presentation. Thank you.
Thank you, glad to be here today. You might hear in my voice I'm a little
under the weather so apologies I didn't tend to be there in person but
I'm good to be here with you virtually. So I'm Andrew Carhart, Caltrans federal
legislation manager. Today we're going to talk about the release of the California
Federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization Principles.
We've also been calling this document our consensus principles for federal reauthorization.
So you may hear me say that as well. These principles reflect broad stakeholder input
and will guide our federal advocacy efforts into the next surface transportation law.
We appreciate your continued engagement as we move forward towards finalizing and circulating
the document. Next slide please. So today I'm going to be taking you briefly through the timeline
and process that our California Federal Affairs working group has been conducting to prepare this
document. We will review the key takeaways and recommendations from the consensus principles
and then we'll discuss future engagement and outreach strategies including how we plan to
build support and gather signatories for this document. Finally we'll invite you all to provide
your comments on the final draft document through the building a California website portal.
Next slide. So this timeline you see here captures the full arc of California's engagement with the
with the IAJA from enactment in November 2021
through its expected sunset in September, 2026.
We began with the IAJA implementation working group,
which ran from January, 2021 to December, 2023,
laying the groundwork for our federal coordination.
In early 2024, Caltrans updated its own federal priorities
followed by stakeholder and tribal surveys
throughout 2024 and into 2025
to gather input for this working group.
The IAJA reauthorization work group
launched in January of 2025,
and has been active throughout that year
shaping that consensus principles document.
Looking ahead, we're gonna be circulating the principles
through February of 2026,
and we'll be soliciting signatories through July of 2026.
Our federal advocacy has been continuing
throughout that time,
but we're gonna be doubling down on that
from May through September
as we work with congressional committees
and other stakeholders on negotiations
for the next surface transportation bill.
The goal of this all is to ensure that California's voice is well represented before the IJA
ends on September 30th of 2026.
Next slide.
So, I'm going to start here with some details on our stakeholder survey.
The slide shows the seven questions we asked our respondents on policy priorities, high
priority projects, and interest to participate in the working group.
We categorize respondents here by their organizations.
You'll see those results on the right-hand table, and a little over a third of the respondents
were individuals with a good portion of advocacy groups
and cities as well.
The remainder were respondents from counties, cogs,
and transportation agencies,
along with some academic institutions,
ports, and private companies.
The mix of cities, counties, cogs,
transportation agencies, and ports
had a pretty widespread between rural and urban interests
across the entire state as well.
Next slide.
So here you'll see responses
to the first question on policy priorities.
Priorities from our respondents
tended to center on transit, active transportation,
safety, multimodality, zero emission vehicles,
EV charging and rail.
Responses from individuals heavily represented interest
in active transportation, rail,
and then limiting highway capacity increases
as long as safety and zero emission vehicles.
The city's counties, COGS and other government entities
tended to focus their issues on road maintenance,
climate resiliency and federal funding changes.
I will note that the two major direct conflicts
we saw from our respondents were
support for increased formula funding
versus increases in discretionary grant funding.
And also we saw conflicts between supporters
of highway expansion that were primarily in rural areas
versus those who supported limiting capacity expansion.
Next slide.
So here you'll see the responses to our third question
on what outcomes or products the respondents wanted to see.
In past reauthorization efforts,
we produced consensus principles, letters, other documents
to communicate our federal priorities,
but we've not always reached consensus
to release the final product as a group.
So this time we wanted to leave it open to participants
to decide how they wanted to move forward.
While many of the respondents chose no response to this,
there was also support for producing
a consensus principles document,
draft legislation, or white papers.
Next slide.
And so here you'll see that we also map those responses
back to Caltrans and CalSTA's four-four priorities.
This mapping really helped to make sure
that our federal advocacy was aligning
with California's principles for safety, equity,
climate action, economic prosperity,
and everything did seem to fit comfortably
within one of these boxes as well.
Next slide.
Finally, this slide is showing our structure
for the sub-topics and the comparison
between our previous IIJ implementation topics
and what we carried forward in the sub-working groups.
We held more than 10 sub-working groups on these topics
throughout 2025 with over 1,000 participants,
ensuring some pretty diverse representation
from state and local interests to get your feedback.
Next slide.
And then here you'll see our expected outcomes,
goals and possible products that are documented
from this working group effort.
Most critical to us was that all voices are heard
and recognized and that we decide by consensus
to make decisions that benefit
the entire California transportation system.
Following those meetings,
we developed our draft consensus principles document
that we're here to talk about today.
Next slide.
So the consensus principles document is built
on over a year of listening sessions and surveys
to capture broad stakeholder input
and on our partner input across California.
It's reflecting values-based advocacy,
aiming to build a broad coalition
and to communicate with policymakers
and the general public.
This contrasts with some other priorities
that might be more technically focused
on specific legislative proposals or draft bill language.
So don't expect to see that as much in this document.
The consensus principles document
is designed to reflect a statewide agreement
and to coordinate federal advocacy
for the benefit of the state of California as a whole.
We did not want this to just be Caltrans voice.
wanted it to come from you all for all Californians. Next slide. So we'll start with the overview
of the document here. Our California Federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization Principles
begins by highlighting our vision for a thriving and connected California before calling out our
list of key principles for reauthorization that you'll see here. Those are enacting funding
reforms, prioritizing safety first, supporting economic prosperity, and advancing transportation
innovation. California's priorities are also closely aligned with AASHTO's policy recommendations
on surface transportation reauthorization and the USDOT's reauthorization principles,
which if you're not familiar that theirs were enhancing transportation safety,
accelerating project delivery, increasing opportunities for investment in
transportation infrastructure, and strengthening partnerships to improve transportation outcomes.
Next slide. So here, in addition to the work group feedback, we also relied heavily on financial
data to support our recommendations. So you'll see a snapshot here of some of the data related
to highway trust fund solvency that's in this document. We wanted to highlight for you all that
this data does include findings from the CTC's needs assessment to inform our projections for
California's transportation needs over the next 10 years. You'll see that here shown across the
National receipts and expenditures and the fund solvency for the federal mass transit
account and the federal highway account, which you'll see is projected to become insolvent
in 2028 without some action from Congress. Next slide.
So moving along to some of the key recommendations and takeaways from the consensus principles
document, the first four items here are all part of our general funding related recommendations.
first is stabilizing the highway trust fund and implementing timely multi-year surface
transportation reauthorization laws. So our highest financial priority is the urgent need
to address the structural insolvency of the highway trust fund through a combination of reforms.
Those reforms could include raising new revenue. It could be, as is done in the past, appropriating
multiple years of general funds or reducing federal spending to match those revenues.
One thing to note is that to reach consensus we're not committing in this document to talking
about a specific policy solution, like, say, road charge or vehicle registration fees or
similar types of policies. Secondly, we're recommending providing guaranteed funding
and limiting competitive grants only to critical federal priorities. This recommendation is
similar to AASHTO's recommendation that Congress should set a maximum cap of 5 to 10% on the
overall amount of funding dispersed through discretionary competitive grant programs.
That said, we do understand that there are possible concerns with this approach,
and we welcome your feedback on this recommendation particularly. Thirdly, we're asking Congress to
streamline federal funding programs to make it easier to deliver projects and meet performance
objectives. We heard some very strong opinions about continuing authority to transfer funds
between formula programs and we recommend giving states maximum transferability among those
programs without the need for federal approval. Next slide. Our fourth and final recommendation
on funding reforms is to allow state and local transportation agencies to direct funds to
projects that best meet their needs. We support AASHTO's recommendation and many other organizations
that are arguing that Congress should maintain current funding levels plus inflation as the
baseline level for federal transportation funding. Currently, federal investments are
proportionately much smaller than California's state and local investments in infrastructure,
as you'll see in some of the data that we reference. We recommend that federal spending
level should seek to be at least a third as much funding for transportation as state
and local governments provide in the future surface transportation law.
So second, we have safety remains California top, top transportation priority, we recommend
that Congress address safety and the next surface transportation bill by continuing
to emphasize the safe systems approach, and providing dedicated funding for proactive
safety programs to align with California's practices.
Congress and US DOT should also provide states with the ability to make changes supported
by the best available evidence that most effectively reduce death and serious injuries on our roadways.
This includes continuing to prioritize our most vulnerable road users, including pedestrians
and bicyclists, and those in historically underserved areas.
Next slide.
Moving along to the economic perspective, here we argue that California's economic
of prosperity depends on continued investments
in the state's transportation system.
So to align with our state SB1 targets,
we recommend Congress also enact fixed-at-first policies
that invest first in maintaining existing infrastructure
before expanding systems or services.
It's critical that both state and local agencies
get adequate funding to maintain their systems
and that there's enough money to address
the significant backlog of maintenance issues
across these systems.
Specifically, also, California's bridges
require substantial investment
to meet the state's 10-year targets.
We recommend that Congress continue
to fund federal bridge programs at or above IJA levels
to achieve these targets.
Our second item in this economic prosperity section
is that transportation systems face a lot of emerging issues
that threaten to interrupt critical economic pathways.
Our experience from the wildfires in LA,
from the COVID-19 pandemic
and other emergency and disaster events
showed that our supply chain still needs more investment
to prevent disruptions to freight and goods movement.
I would recommend that Congress continue to support programs
like the Predact Program and the Emergency Relief Program
to improve our transportation systems resiliency
to those types of events.
Next slide.
Finally on the subject,
we also emphasize that travelers
need transportation options that allow them
to freely choose their preferred modes of travel.
Our partners and advocates have specifically asked
California to take a strong stance on proposals
that might defund transit.
so include here that Congress should continue
to maintain federal transit funding
at or above the year five IJA baseline
adjusted for inflation.
Congress should also reject any proposals
that would either eliminate the mass transit account
or prohibit states from using highway formula funds
for public transit.
One of our key advocacy points here is that California
is specifically supporting
the active transportation infrastructure
investment program.
That federal program that was created in the IJA
originally included 200 million annually
for active transportation
to provide competitive connectivity grants
that strategically invest in projects
that connect active transportation networks.
That program was not fully funded initially,
and we do wanna seek to see that fully funded at that level
in the next surface transportation bill.
Then lastly, our recommendations related to innovation,
transportation is changing and future programs
need to embrace transformative technologies and processes.
So we're asking that Congress adopt a forward-leaning policy framework to remove structural barriers,
modernized processes, and invest strategically in innovation to ensure the nation keeps pace
with rapid technological change.
So we want to see Congress supporting significant funding for research development, demonstration
and deployment of advanced emerging technologies, including connected autonomous vehicle infrastructure,
real-time data platforms, and digital mobility tools.
These recommendations that are technology-related all align pretty closely with ITS America's
platform as well. And then we also recommend that Congress should specifically put in equity
guardrails into these types of programs to make sure that the technological programs guarantee
that historically underserved communities realize the same safety, mobility, and environmental
benefits of innovation that some of the more affluent or early adopting regions might also see.
Lastly, we're recommending Congress mandate reforms to environmental review and permitting
processes to reduce administrative delays and enable states to rapidly deploy emerging
technologies. And then we've also heard a lot of requests through our work group to expand public
private partnerships and leverage private investment on transportation projects. So we're
asking Congress to expand programs and incentives that facilitate data sharing, joint initiatives,
and cooperative project delivery between state and local governments and the private sector.
Next slide. So looking forward, our outreach efforts are going to focus on building
broad support for the Consensus Principles document. Public comments are going to be
open through February 27th of 2026. We'll begin soliciting signatories once the final
document is out, although you can express interest now if your organization would like
to sign on. That will be available through July of 2026 to ensure statewide alignment
on these principles. Key engagement opportunities going forward include AASHTO's Washington
briefing in February where we are going to be presenting California's priorities, and
also be meeting with congressional offices throughout this time to advocate for our
recommendations. During the spring, here we're going to be engaging in appropriations discussions
and also monitoring the committee bill markups to influence legislative outcomes.
We do expect to see bills coming out probably starting in March, so we'll have something to
respond to then. And these efforts are all designed to ensure that California's voice is
heard throughout this federal reauthorization process. Next slide. So as I said, the California
federal surface transportation reauthorization principles is out for public comment on the
building California website portal. The link is here along with a QR code that would take you
directly to that same link. Public comments are going to be open through February 27th of 2026.
You can submit them through the portal or if you have additional comments that don't fit into our
web interface there's instructions online on where you can email any additional materials or
attachments. We'll begin soliciting signatories through that July 31st date and if you're
that. If your organization is
interested in becoming a
signatory. There's a place in
the public comment portal there
to indicate that or you can
reach out directly to us and
also if you'd like us to present
to your organizations or
membership, your constituents,
please reach out to us and we'll
be happy to do that as well. And
that concludes my presentation
for today. Thank you. All right.
Thanks so much. Any public
comment on this item? No, there
was no request to comment on
Thank you Chair Grisby.
Andrew, I'd like you to speak a little bit
in more depth about the recommendation
of guaranteed funding in reducing the competitive grants.
I continue to hear coming from a rural area
and rural counties that do not have the resources
that larger counties, larger municipalities have,
They don't have the ability to apply for grants and so they're at a distinct disadvantage. I realize there's trade-offs
And when you have guaranteed funding
Uh competitive grants to allow you to potentially get more funding, but I just like you to speak to that a little bit
I'm
I for one am happy to see your recommendation. Thank you
Yes. Thank you commissioner. Um, so of course there's trade-offs either way
One of the things that we found actually is that a lot of the smaller agencies and mid-size agencies
are the ones that are more actively looking for those competitive grants because they can be quite
a windfall. If you're a small agency and you get a 30, 40 million dollar grant, it can be transformative,
but on the other hand, chasing those grants takes resources and we don't necessarily have an
accounting of how much money is being spent. Part of the reason that we recommend moving
away from those competitive grant programs is that it creates a lot of infighting where
we're competing against each other for the same pots of money. That's not necessarily productive.
Part of the recommendation there is if money was coming to the state in a formula program,
it would be something that the state could potentially take and set up our own
internal competitive grants within California to backfill those sorts of solutions.
That said, we're not committed to one way or the other at this point. That's why we do want
feedback. But we have heard from folks. I think that the vast majority of people want to see
more formula-based funding, particularly for that guarantee, right? It makes it easier to have these
long-term multi-year transportation projects go through when there's stable funding over a
multi-year period of time. So again, definitely a trade-off either way. It's something that we're
looking into closely though and we want to hear feedback from all of our constituents on that.
Yeah, thank you for the comments and you're right it there is a trade-off and I would say for the competitive grant funding if
There could be more support given
Not sure where it comes from but from the state or what have you but more support
For those smaller counties that don't have the resources so if they are doing competitive grant writing they they have the ability to
to make those submittals
with some assistance from maybe outside their County, but thank you for your comments, and
Thank you vice-chair focal
Thank you. Mr. Chair
And thank you commissioner Tiffany for those questions. I'm just kind of hops got piggybacking on that
is there a
Kind of leveraging what we what we can contribute is there a guaranteed minimum that we can expect and
Then I have a other question in addition to that
Yeah, so my understanding is that the highway trust fund monies have a guaranteed minimum
in law of 95% of that money coming back to the jurisdiction where it was raised from,
but the past surface transportation laws have included a lot of appropriations from federal
general funds, and those don't have those same guarantees.
So a lot of IJAs funding comes from that pot where it doesn't have that kind of restriction
And I'm going back to a state where the money was raised.
OK.
My next questions are kind of contextual and to the extent
that we can talk about lobbying and advocacy.
What kind of language are we using
that aligns competitively with other states
as we are trying to draw as much of that funding to the state
as we can?
and are you looking at more interstate priorities that would be able to compete for those fundings?
Thank you, that's a great question. I think the place where this document lives is we are trying
to align as much as possible with our national level advocacy that happens through bodies like
AASHTO or APTA, the MPO organizations, but also trying to center it on what are the unique values
and circumstances in California.
That's where we're really looking for feedback from folks.
I think the structure of this is primarily based off
of AASHTO's recommendations,
but we are looking for more input
from our regional governments, our local governments
on what are those issues that are most critical to them.
I do think we got a lot of that out of our working group.
We had a lot of interactivity through that process,
but that's where we're kind of centering on.
And so part of that is looking at whether we're going to be able to get similar returns
out of the next surface transportation law.
We are trying to position the state, you know, to get as much as we can get financially.
And that includes building some of those priorities that are California's priorities into these
federal laws.
Right.
So that that's kind of the placement where this document lives, trying to get a general
surface transportation bill that reflects our values, our priorities as California.
Thank you, Andrew.
All right.
Thank you.
Yeah.
One question I have is we know in past reauthorization processes, moderate Republicans played a key
role in advancing progressive reforms.
And this question is really a vibes check not to reveal your lobbying strategy.
Just wondering, I know there's fewer of those types of folks up there now.
Just give a report out on how you're feeling about getting modern Republicans or unexpected
Republicans to back progressive reforms.
Yeah, I think, thank you for that.
I think that we expect that there will be some areas of alignment where we can work
with this USDOT primarily that's going to be on things like environmental permitting
reforms, speeding project delivery, potentially on autonomous vehicles and infrastructure
related to that, and modernizing our transportation system, those are going to be the areas that
we're really focused in on is where can we actually get something to happen that's going
to benefit California. So those are sort of our key focus areas here.
All right, excellent. One of the kind of sticky political issues oftentimes is the question
of automation within the transit realm. There are some folks in California who are interested
in that as a policy topic. Just wondering, once you get a vibes check, how is that conversation
going in terms of your outreach with stakeholders? Yes. So we just met with the California Transit
Association. I think that, you know, we're going to be kind of looking to them to lead that
conversation, you know, getting a consensus among their member agencies is going to be quite a
lift. And so I do look forward to seeing what their comments are going to be on this document.
That is exactly why we want to make sure we're getting robust public comment. That's not
something that I can necessarily speak to from a trans perspective. I think it's going to come
from those transit agencies to speak to what they need. And obviously they're going to be
doing their own advocacy as well. Part of the point of this document is to coordinate what we're
we're doing so that we're not working at cross purposes here.
All right. Excellent. Any other questions or comments from the dance hearing?
And I just want to thank you all for that great presentation and update. Uh,
and if this is an action item, is there a motion to approve?
So moved by commissioner eager. Is there a second? Uh,
commissioner Tiffany seconds. All those in favor?
Opposed abstentions motion is approved. Uh,
going to item 19 now trend active transportation program fund estimate
Benson commissioners commissioners working now other we go commissioners
tab 19 is an information item for the draft 2020 closer to the mic 2027 active
transportation fund estimate and will be presented by Garrett Franklin from
Caltrans budgets and just a reminder the final fund estimate will be presented at
the March commission meeting. Good afternoon commissioners executive director. My name's
Garrett Franklin Caltrans division of budgets and I'll be presenting the draft 2027 active
transportation program fund estimate. Next slide please. So some primary assumptions
were used to determine the funding amount available for the 2027 cycle which encompasses
fiscal years 2027-28 through 2030-31. This includes stable state funding over that four-year period.
For the applicable federal funding, the level was based on the Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act level and escalated at 1.8% annually. This escalator is consistent with the recently
adopted State Transportation Improvement Program Fund Estimate. In addition, the Fund
Estimate includes a recently redistributed portion of the Transportation Infrastructure
Finance and Innovation Act, which is commonly referred to as TIFIA, for the ATP-eligible
projects in the first year of this Fund Estimate cycle. And as in prior Fund estimates, it
adjust for the previous programming as well as the amount of funding that's made available
for the next cycle. Next slide, please. So this table displays the total funding available,
offsets for the adjustments that were referenced in the prior slide, and arrives at a four-year
programming value of approximately 620 million dollars. The distributions in
the lower portion of that table parse out the entire 620 million dollars
among urban regions, small urban and rural, and statewide. Next slide please. I
guess while the presentation is coming back up I'll just add that that was
intended to be a summary of the funding and additional details are included in
the agenda materials. And there's one more slide, well two technically. Awesome.
As far as next steps, the department will continue to work directly with
commissioned staff and the plan is to return, as Vince had shared, with the
proposed 2027 ATP fund estimate at the March meeting. And similar to this
meeting. That presentation is anticipated to coincide with the program guidelines for the
2027 cycle. Next slide, please. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Excellent. Thanks so much. Any public comment on this item?
No, there was no request to comment on the item. Thank you. I have a question about TIFIA. You
mentioned TIFIA earlier, and I used to go pretty deep into TIFIA, but it's been years since I've
I've done so and just wondering how would TIFIA,
what's the repayment mechanism for an ATP project with TIFIA?
I actually don't have an answer for that.
I know that this is specific to the unused portion
of what was TIFIA and it's basically being made available
for the STBG program and there's a subset of that
for the transportation alternative.
So I don't know if it follows that same mechanism.
Okay, that makes sense to me now.
Okay, thank you.
Any questions, comments from the dais?
Hearing none, thank you so much for the presentation.
Thank you.
Next up, we're gonna go to item 20 ATP again, Anja.
Commissioners, no, okay.
Commissioners, all right, I'll get closer.
Commissioners, tab 20 is an information item
presenting the draft 2027 Active Transportation Program guidelines to give commissioners and the public an opportunity to provide comments and ask questions.
The final guidelines, as mentioned, will come forward for adoption at the March Commission meeting, and the call for projects will be released shortly thereafter.
The draft 2027 active transportation program guidelines
are included as attachment A to the book item.
The book item also includes a link
to a track changes version of the guidelines,
which shows the revisions compared to the adopted
2025 active transportation program guidelines.
The 2027 active transportation program
is the program's eighth cycle.
Commission staff commenced the guidelines development process in late summer of 2025.
We started by consulting with our management team, our counterparts at Caltrans, and the
program's technical advisory committee to determine potential changes.
We've worked closely with our many partners across seven cycles to streamline the program.
And for cycle eight, we made minimal changes to program policies to provide consistency.
With a significant reduction in funding to the 2025 Active Transportation Program, hundreds
of critically needed projects across the state remain unfunded.
By minimizing major changes, applicants can focus on improving their projects based on
community feedback and improve the application narratives based on evaluator feedback rather
than completely reworking their responses.
We held a kickoff workshop in August 2025 and hosted a total of nine workshops focused
on the guidelines and the applications.
One of these workshops was presented by Caltrans to train potential applicants on attaining
a project study report equivalency.
The workshops were well attended and included partners from local, regional, and state agencies,
based organizations, statewide transportation advocacy organizations, and other interested
parties with expertise and interest in biking, walking, safe routes to school, and social
equity.
During the workshops, we addressed issues that participants flagged and thoroughly discussed
all proposed updates with the workshop participants.
There are a few consensus items and noteworthy changes that I wanted to highlight.
First, I want to point out something that is not changing.
We will continue to use the online application portal that was introduced in Cycle 7.
We received a lot of feedback, both from applicants and evaluators, and were incorporating what
we heard to simplify and streamline the applications and hopefully improve the user experience.
So Senate Bill 1216, which passed in 2024
prohibits the active transportation program
from funding projects that create a class three bikeway
or sheriffs on or after January 1st, 2026.
We added language to the guidelines
to ensure that applicants are aware of this legislation
and the impact on the program.
In addition, an unscored question
was added to the application to help us identify projects
that are proposing class three bikeways or sharerows
so that we can ensure compliance with statute.
With support from stakeholders,
we're ending the quick build pilot program
in the statewide and small urban and rural components,
but continuing it in the Metropolitan Planning Organization
or MPO component.
Quikbills are temporary projects that are meant to be implemented on a much faster timeline
than regular infrastructure projects to provide immediate benefits.
Over the course of three cycles, staff worked with stakeholders to craft the pilot program
and improve it.
Despite the many improvements, each cycle, the number of quick build project nominations
has declined.
In addition the delivery rate of the funded Quick Build projects has not been quicker
than traditional infrastructure projects.
And in response to feedback that was provided by the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee,
we updated the language in the guidelines and the application to be inclusive of people
with disabilities.
We clarified the program's intent of funding accessible active transportation facilities
and highlighted the program's goals of inclusiveness and building facilities that are accessible
to a wide variety of users, including those who use wheelchairs and mobility devices,
among others.
And lastly, I wanted to highlight the addition of a new appendix with guidance for our non-infrastructure
projects. Non-infrastructure projects provide education and encouragement programs and are
an important aspect of the active transportation program because they engage a variety of community
members and can have a lasting impact. The proposed appendix provides a summary and overview
and the requirements for this project type. In addition to the changes to the guidelines,
I wanted to highlight the engagement and technical assistance work that we've been
doing in preparation for cycle eight. To date we've hosted 25 virtual site visits
during 35 projects in 19 counties with an additional 11 site visits and I know it's
more than that because I just saw two invitations come through today so the number is increasing
but we have more site visits scheduled through March 2026. We are still taking site visit
requests from any interested applicant in the state, so get in touch. Additionally, we have also
met with 53 agencies to debrief on 80 cycle 7 project applications, and these meetings are
different from our site visits because we discuss the evaluator comments and provide
feedback on how to improve their application for cycle 8. We will also hold three technical
assistance branch workshops in February, one for each region of the state, northern, central,
and southern California. These two hour workshops will focus on providing basic information on the
program and we will walk through the application questions, giving tips and suggestions for writing
a successful application. After each of the workshops we will be available to attendees
for region-specific virtual site visits and we're providing an in-depth analysis of past performance
to agencies that requested it. The development of a new cycle is a team effort, and I have an
amazing team. I want to take a moment to thank them, Alika Chenghisi and Jayden Gales. Thank
you for all of your hard work during this process. Alika led the effort to streamline and make
updates to the application and scoring rubrics, and Jayden has coordinated all of the engagement
and technical assistance efforts. I'm also so grateful to our many partners for their input,
expertise, and support during the guidelines development process. And I also want to thank
my deputy, Lori Waters, for her support and guidance during the process. Staff does not
anticipate any major changes to the guidelines before they come to you for adoption in March.
the guidelines presented to you today are for the most part what you can expect to see
in March and that concludes my presentation. All right thank you so much. Any public comment
on this item? No there was no request to comment on this item. Thank you so much. So I have a question
on the quick build. It's interesting to hear that they were not faster than the traditional
and that's a big finding. Do you have any bullet points to describe where that's the case?
Yeah, so a couple things. I think part of it was that we were learning on the go. So the first
couple cycles, we were trying to figure out how to fit a quick build project type into
a state program. I think that may have caused some delays. I think there's also,
there was a lot of confusion between the quick build project and like a small infrastructure.
The quick build project is meant to use materials that are not permanent and we expected that they
would last up to five years and then be replaced with permanent materials if they wanted to
continue the improvements. So there was some environmental issues and getting environmental
clearance rather um quickly and you know the environmental clearance timeline didn't speed up
for our quick build um projects so I mean there's I think there's a series of things but I think
those are the ones I would probably point out as um maybe the biggest attract that's good to know
thanks so much um so on the environmental I assume that includes like public input um because
just anecdotally I've heard nothing to do with our projects that be fun I've
just heard from community partners that sometimes they don't like the way some
of the quick bills look is that part of it or is there something outside of that
just to get more edification on that. Are you calling for a lifeline on you? Yes
please. Okay so when it comes to environmental the public comments so
throughout project delivery there is public engagement and we do hear those
kinds of things where people don't support bike lanes, you know, active
transportation sidewalks, and those different types of things. But when it
comes to the process as itself, the most advanced process in under CEQA is an
environmental impact report, and it's 45 days regardless of what type of project
it is. So that part is consistent regardless of what type of product
you're doing if you're doing a full-on environmental impact report. But where
you might see some of those things happening, right, is so even though many active transportation
products may qualify for what we call a categorical exclusion, which is a very quick CEQA process,
it really depends on where that product is. So if there are toxic contaminants, for example,
that's going to be a very long protracted CEQA process as well as a remediation process
to clean those things up. And so I think what Anya, you're saying is that that process hasn't
changed and it's still very long because of some of those things that are that are out there that
they're they're looking for in the environmental process. Great that's good to know I really
appreciate that. A little background on why I'm interested about maybe 15 years ago now,
I pushed a lot of the earlier research on this topic and concert with advocates that were using
it and it sounds like the has reached this logical conclusion and it might be useful to
share those findings out to the community to sort of close the loop on the body of literature
and knowledge around this topic. So really appreciate the work that you all have done
to incorporate this and interesting to see how it turned out a decade and a half later.
I like the way you're thinking, Chair Grisby. We are actually going to kind of do a little bit
a bit of an analysis talk to some of the agencies that were awarded quick builds and, you know, put together kind of like a little report of how the pilot program went. So happy to share that once that's completed.
Excellent. Thanks so much. Commissioner Elliott.
Thanks, I actually learned quite a bit. I've been checking out diagrams and things as you were talking.
I live in San Francisco. I bike my children to school every morning and the differentiation
between quick build and infrastructure improvement. I'm thinking narrowly about San Francisco because
it's my lived experience and I understand that this may be one of the jurisdictions
to implementing them properly. Just an observation as you guys are going around
and starting evaluation here.
I notice that bikers, pedestrians, runners,
scooter people, skateboarders, all the...
It's like desire paths through the city.
And just as it happens, there is an intense amount of it.
I used to work in the city of San Francisco,
the amount of money we spent creating the wiggle
and doing all of that infrastructure,
and no one uses it anymore.
Because the quick build of Page Street,
which doesn't mean anything to anybody
unless you know what I'm talking about,
it's one street over and everyone uses that.
and it's quick build with some safe hit posts.
So I reflect on that, and I don't
want to generalize to the whole state,
but it really is around behavior change.
And people are going to go where they're comfortable.
And the main point, I guess, I want
to make, from my observation in San Francisco,
using different kinds of infrastructures,
that more money and more stuff doesn't necessarily
mean more people want to use it, or they feel safer using it.
And sometimes quick builds, which
I understand through the presentation,
it's really for the small and rural
that are maybe not implementing them timely,
they're better in a lot of cases.
And more doesn't mean better,
more human centered design means better.
That's my observation from using this stuff
on a daily basis and Page Street and Wiggle,
I think is an interesting side by side on that.
Thank you for indulging me.
Thank you, commissioner.
I happen to still love the Wiggle.
You have dissent on the commission.
Okay.
Any other commissioner comments, questions, hearing none. Thanks so much. We're not going to.
All right. I'd like to welcome back our commissioners.
If we could, can we turn back to our seats, please?
Commissioners please.
Yes.
All right. Let's get started.
naveen order please i'm recusing myself on this item due to the abundance of caution
due to a potential conflict all right thank you commissioner hello i don't know if this
just goes on by itself or not i think it goes on by itself excellent we now have a quorum
Let's go ahead and do item 21, Naveen.
Hello?
I don't think it's on.
Just start talking.
Okay.
Commissioners tab 21 is an action item to approve the 2025 through 2028 environmental
enhancement and mitigation program, also known as the EEM program, as provided in the book
item.
The commission awards annual grants to fund projects as recommended by the California
Natural Resources Agency which develops and adopts procedures to determine eligibility,
evaluates project proposals, recommends projects for funding, and manages grants post-award.
This programming action reflects the unique scale, timing, and criticality of the Wallace
Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Project. The $92 million Wildlife Crossing Project is a public-private
partnership that was identified as a priority by the governor's office and is supported by Caltrans
the National Wildlife Federation, and numerous partner organizations.
Upon completion, the crossing will be the first of its kind in California
and a nationally and internationally significant example
of wildlife connectivity in a highly urbanized corridor.
Given its advanced construction status, the California Natural Resources
Agency recommends a multi-year programming approach
across the 2025 through 2028 grant cycles.
This approach supports timely delivery of an eligible mitigation project beyond the scope of the CEQA Lead Agency.
Future year funding remains contingent upon budget appropriation, and additional projects will be brought forward in subsequent programming actions as funding becomes available.
commission staff coordinated closely with the California Natural Resources
Agency Caltrans and the governor's office to advance the shared statewide
priority supporting wildlife connectivity public safety and long-term ecological
resilience commission staff reviewed this request and recommend your approval
of tap 21 all right thank you to being any public comment on this item no there
was no request to comment on the item all right thank you any questions or
comments from the dais Vice Chair folk on thank you mr. chair I just want to
take a moment to acknowledge CTC staff a natural resources agency and and Dina's
group at Caltrans for making this happen this was this was some clutch work
work during the holidays. We were convened by two secretaries, Omashakan and Crawfoot,
to really look at how we can fill the delta of this project. And let me tell you, I have
driven through 101 going to Santa Barbara for a certain ribbon cutting on the 101 and
saw a very impressive crossing above me.
And it was very impactful to see.
And clearly, there is an important wildlife corridor.
And I can see why this is such a highlight for the administration
to complete.
And during the end of the year, it was, it seemed a little bit insurmountable to see
if we can get the funding and CTC staff working with Caltrans, notably Naveen and Matthew,
really got it together and found a way to fund this and to complete the funding of this
project.
I just wanted to take a moment to to acknowledge that work and it
really shows a spirit of cooperation and collaboration between the
agencies. It wasn't a huge funding exercise but it was enough
where we had to really have staff really work on this before the end of the year
year to get this to to um agenda is for this for this hearing. So I just wanted to highlight
that and if it's okay with you, Mr Chair, I would like to make a motion to support.
All right, thank you. Any other questions or comments from the dias? Uh, we have a motion
to approve by Vice Chair Phil Cone. Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Tiffany.
All those in favor? Opposed? Abstitions? Motion is approved. We can bring back Commissioner
May. Someone going to do that? All right, now we'll move to item 22. I can't pronounce
the name. Lala, apologies. No, worry. Thank you, Chair Grisby. Commissioner's top 22 is
an informational item. Commission staff is pleased to highlight innovations in transportation
series through Caltrans sustainable pavement. Gigi Thomas, deputy division chief of maintenance
at Caltrans will present how Caltrans is incorporating sustainability into pavement design, construction,
and maintenance to improve long-term performance and advance statewide climate and resilience
goals. With that I'll turn it over to T.J. for her presentation. Thank you, Lale. Can
you hear me? All right. Good afternoon, Chair, Grisby, Commissioners, Directors, and my transportation
partners. As mentioned, my name is T.J. Thomas. I'm with Caltrans, the state pavement engineer,
and it is my pleasure to be here to highlight some of our sustainable pavement strategies.
California, Caltrans is a leader in the nation
in this area of sustainable pavement strategies.
Next slide please.
Just a quick overview on how sustainability
and how the pavement asset fits into it.
Different pavement types and then benefits
of our sustainable pavement strategies
and a few pavement strategies to highlight
how we've implemented them.
So next slide.
So pavement, pavement is our largest asset.
It's over 50,000 lane miles in our state highway system.
And how does it fit with sustainability?
Sustainability is improving the quality of our life.
It's making sure that we meet the commitments
of this generation without comprising the ability
to meet the commitments of future generations.
And we do this by leveraging people, people's lives.
planet in the environment, prosperity, and partnerships.
And this is where innovation comes into it.
We use research, our industry partners, academia,
and into translating this into sustainable strategies
that translate into our projects through guidance, tools,
our construction standard specifications, test methods.
And so just to take a little step back on the next slide,
pavement, right?
When you're driving around on pavement,
little do you realize that there's several layers below it.
The top surface that you drive on is the wearing surface.
Below it you have the base, and then the foundation,
the sub-base, and you have subgrade, native soil.
And then there's two general types of pavement,
your asphalt pavement and the concrete pavement.
So asphalt pavement is, you know,
you might hear asphalt concrete pavement, hot mix asphalt,
which is HMA, or just simply black top.
But in both cases, there's some basic ingredients
and materials, so you've got a binder.
So in asphalt pavement, it's asphalt,
which is a byproduct of the crude oil industry.
And then for concrete, it's cement.
And then you have what we call aggregate,
But it's the rock, see the crushed gravel, sand, rock.
And sometimes we add additives.
And with concrete pavement, you need some water.
And the reason I bring up these layers
and these different materials is because when we come up
with sustainable strategies, we're trying to,
it's either the layers or the materials
that we're trying to address.
And so on the next stage are some of the benefits
of all our, next slide, sorry,
are some of the benefits of our sustainable strategies.
We're trying to conserve natural resources,
reduce the use of virgin materials.
So we're trying to recycle, reuse a lot of our materials,
reduce waste in the landfills like rubber tires,
reduce our life cycle costs.
Here in Caltrans when we make selections of pavement types we're doing a life cycle cost
analysis or a life cycle environmental impact because we're trying to see if we can reduce
life cycle costs or rather make them more efficient.
Then of course the big climate change one, greenhouse gas emissions, that's a big one.
Or promoting the longevity of long life pavement.
Any time you have longer life pavement, that's less maintenance and rehabilitation, less lane
closures, less traffic handling, less time you have traffic cars idling in the lanes.
So definitely long life pavement.
But at the end of it, we want durable, resource efficient pavement, minimize the environmental
impact and of course support Caltrans climate and sustainability goals.
So next slide, please.
So this is a scary slide because there's a lot of pictures and a lot of writing.
But just in brief, those circles are really factors that affect our pavement life cycle
like materials or our traffic.
But what I really want you to focus on is the bullets.
And we won't spend a lot of time reading those bullets today just because of time.
But there's 22 of them.
are sustainable pavement strategies. Fifteen of them have been researched and implemented.
They're in our construction specifications or our methods or processes. Seven of them
we're still, they're in the process. We're working on them. And then in the interest
of time, of course I couldn't go through all of them, but I picked three. Next slide, please.
And these three, really because a lot of these three strategies contribute to our SP1 efficiencies.
Every year roughly around 18 million to 20 million of your SP1 efficiencies come from
pavement strategies.
So the first one is RAP.
And when I say RAP in the asphalt pavement world, we're big fans of RAP.
And not RAP music, but reclaimed asphalt pavement RAP.
Then there's other strategies like cold recycling
of asphalt pavement and low carbon cement.
Next slide please.
So wrap, why is, what is wrap?
So wrap is really old removed asphalt material
that is crushed and we can recycle it.
So instead of in our construction projects
getting new virgin material aggregate, we're using wrap.
So how is this important?
Here in California, our aggregate supplies are dwindling.
We're not opening any new kiwari pits.
So our cities and counties are doing a lot
of asphalt projects and we have piles of wrap
that we can use.
Through a lot of years of research,
we have implemented it.
In fact, most of our Caltrans construction projects
that require a mixed design are using wrap.
We allow contractors to substitute,
instead of using a virgin material,
going and buying new aggregate, you can use RAP.
Significantly, some of the benefits.
The cost, you know, it does depend
on the project and the materials,
but 15%, 10 to 15% reduction in cost,
but 20 to 30% reduction in greenhouse gases.
So, really a sustainable strategy.
and again, this one item is a constant contributor
for an SB1 efficiency.
So next slide please.
Cold recycling.
This is another one of those strategies.
Again, whatever pavement you have in place,
it's crushed, ground up,
maybe sometimes you have to add an additive,
but then it's compacted into a solid base layer.
And then on the top, we pour a new surface course.
We get another 10, 15 years of life
and huge savings in greenhouse gas emissions,
up to 40%, depending on the project location
or the materials and the existing condition of the pavement.
If you go down to District Two,
a lot of projects in Trinity County, Route 36,
San Bernardino County have used cold recycling.
So next slide, please.
Low carbon cement.
So we have strategies in the concrete side as well.
A core ingredient is clinker,
made of limestone and cement.
But producing clinker is very energy consuming
and produces a lot of carbon dioxide emissions.
So the strategy is to replace some part of that clinker
with Portland Lime Cement Concrete.
We like acronyms, so we call it PLC.
Again, the cost is about the same
if you replace a cubic yard of concrete with PLC concrete,
but it reduces the greenhouse gas emissions 7% to 10%.
Definitely a sustainable strategy.
I know my time is limited.
We have several exciting things coming up
in the pavement world, things like environmental product
declarations.
These are kind of getting a nutrition label on materials,
where from its cradle to life, it's kind of cradle to gate,
or cradle to life, it's kind of a listing
of all the greenhouse gas or the environmental impacts
on the materials.
Some really exciting things going on.
I just wanted to thank all of you for all the support
with our projects and hoping that we can support more sustainable strategies for pavement.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
That's a great presentation.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Any public comment?
No, there's no request to comment on this item.
Thank you.
I see Commissioner Eager.
So if you use process like RAP as the life expectancy of that pavement, just as good
as if you did brand new?
Yes.
Oh, good.
No, yeah, durable.
Yes, so with all our strategies, innovation is great.
We always want to do innovative things,
but we can't lose sight of safety and the cost
effectiveness.
So yes, it is durable.
We haven't found any measurable differences in the lifecycle.
Oh, good.
Yeah.
Good to hear.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for the presentation.
I really appreciated it.
So my question is about durability also.
And I'm going to ask a first question
and then I have a follow-up question.
But one of the things I'm curious about
when we think about life cycle, and given some of the changes
that we've seen with climate change and other issues,
we just had a really intense season with the level of rain
that we saw over a number of days.
And when you think about the life cycle of the pavement,
does it take into account that level of shift
that we're seeing?
And if so, as you're thinking about it like into the future,
the various tools that you're using
and the analysis that you're doing,
are you sharing that also with municipalities?
And part of my question around this,
kind of like thinking about SB1, for so many Californians,
their experience of that is like, are there potholes?
What does my street, what is it like when I drive down it?
And that could be a highway or their local street.
And so I'm curious about the impact of the changes
that we're seeing in terms of our weather patterns,
the impacts of climate change, and what does that mean,
ultimately in terms of the longevity, thank you.
Thank you, I think I'm gonna break up
your questions up a little bit.
I think so, I guess one question was,
the impacts of all the weather related changes,
the climate change on pavement, whether we account for it.
We do, in a certain effect with our materials
our analysis, though that the shifts that we are seeing it is something that we have
to look into. There is areas there that we do have to explore. But this kind of ties
into your second question of is if we share that information with municipalities and counties.
Yes, we do. A lot of our innovations or sustainable strategies, we partner with academia and with
industry partners, both on the asphalt and concrete pavement industry. A lot of our standard
specifications and test methods are used by local counties and municipalities. We share
at conferences, anytime we have changes like this, there's a method that we do send it
out through our industry partners.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I really appreciate it because as I kind of shared earlier, I do think that when it comes
to how resources are being spent, what I often see, and as I'm interacting with others, what
they bring up is just, are things that go to how easy is it for them to move around.
So that might be large infrastructure projects, or it might just be, am I going to face a
pothole on the way, you know, down a mountain or dropping my kid off of school?
So I think that the pavement issue is such a critical one, and I appreciate you sharing
it from the perspective of the environmental impacts that it has based on the types of
choices that are made, and then also, you know, things like longevity.
But it is a number of different points that you're looking at.
And so thank you for going through all of that.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Thank you.
Commissioner Tiffany.
Thank you, Chair Grisby.
Yeah, my fellow commissioner beat me to the punch about potholes.
When I was on the Board of Supervisors in San Diego County, by far and away, the most
phone calls I got were on potholes.
And we struggled with our county roads.
So I'm glad to hear that you do share that with other municipalities, that's great.
I'm just curious, going a little bit further, how do you decide you presented some different
approaches that are sustainable, which is great, more efficient, but how do you decide
from one project to another as far as which approach you take?
These are one approach that makes the most sense.
And I'm particularly interested in, do all the, again, lessons learned, do all the districts
throughout the state of California, when projects are being bid, are they, in fact, pursuing
the most efficient and the most effective, the most energy sustainable approach?
turn on your mic. Hello, thank you. So the question on whether they're using the correct
strategy, I sincerely hope so. Because we do have policy and procedure. We have a robust
project delivery process. Our project delivery process does include life cycle cost analysis.
It does include an environmental impact.
The guidance is there.
So I really hope that they're using it.
In fact, I do think that they're using it.
The second part of your question was whether from project
to project.
So it's done at a project level basis.
And the policy and procedure are there
where the project delivery team can
pick the most sustainable strategy?
Did that answer the whole question?
I think there was a little.
Yes, but I hope that your hope is correct,
that they are.
No.
That we are and Tim maybe I should look to you
that we ensure that that's happening
because again, it's a big state.
It is.
And obviously we wanna use the latest innovation
And I appreciate your presentation, it's very interesting.
And to hear about how we can better deal with potholes
and be more energy efficient.
So just to add to that, we have statewide meetings
where we do outreach to our REs, our resident engineers,
or our project delivery team to get feedback.
And where we have meetings with our district maintenance
that's something that we're
looking into. We've got to look
into it. We've got to change it.
that. I know that that's something you all have been working towards. So thank you. Thank you.
There we go. All right. So a lot of the regulations and practices of our state has created new markets
and sustained new markets that are cleaner. We've seen that in a variety of different places. And
my question pertains to this idea of the what's it called the low carbon cement or is it asphalt?
low-carbon cement.
Low-carbon cement.
A, is that useful in the same applications
as traditional concrete, number one?
Number two, is our demand driving additional companies
to provide it?
And if not, are there any kind of like market problems
or try to think of the word, but essentially issues
in the marketplace that make it less,
more difficult to make it the industry standard.
So as far as, no, I think Portland cement,
so when we talk of low carbon cement,
yes, it's used in the same application for pavement, okay.
Now regarding market conditions,
Caltrans introduced this into their standard specifications
in 2021.
So it's been about four years, so it's relatively new.
So we're seeing that a lot of projects
in Southern California are using it.
In the Northern part of California,
it still has to pick up.
Our industry partners are telling us
it's a little bit about availability,
but it is something that we are working together with them,
but it is something that we're still monitoring
on its use, yeah.
Thanks so much.
Any other questions from the desk?
Vice-chair Faucon.
Oh, and I'll get you after because the vice chair,
Leslie want to give it up?
Okay, cool.
Let's do that.
Oh, yeah.
We only have one mic.
It was, I'm sorry, it was kind of tied into you
because I was curious about kind of the ecosystem
and the industry side and if you saw new companies
that are looking at this innovation
and kind of providing the need with,
I was looking at like even the reclaimed asphalt pavement,
but that was kind of my question
if you were seeing new companies,
not just the traditional companies
to develop new innovations in this space.
You have to be honest that I haven't been
having a tab on the companies that are in the market. I think our construction
partners would have better information on that, but it's something that I'll
definitely look into. Yeah. Thank you. Commission. I wonder if the barriers to
entry might be high to your question. I don't know. I'm just wondering. Oh yes.
Just follow up to that. I appreciate the presentation. All of the the innovation
and technology is intriguing. I know how difficult it is in California to site
new facilities. So looking at opportunities to use recycled asphalt and recycled concrete
obviously is important. My first question was dealing with life cycle and that was sort of
addressed. And I know there's an attempt now to use rubberized asphalt and incorporate
that as a recycled material to mitigate for noise. Is that also part of the program moving forward?
Thank you, Commissioner, for this question.
Rubber, I really debated on including rubberized asphalt.
I think the word you said there's an intent.
No, actually, we already use it.
We're using rubber in the top-wearing surface
of our pavement.
In fact, last year, what I heard
as we removed like four million tires based on all that was used on our construction projects.
So rubberized asphalt is being used. In fact, we have a legal mandate. Every year we have
to use 35% of all the asphalt that we use, we have to use rubber in it. So we do have
a legal mandate. I'm actually really proud of our districts because the last two years
Because we not only met, we exceeded it.
We're close to like 40% or 43%.
So rubberized asphalt is being used in our wearing surfaces.
We're looking at trying to expand those boundaries where we're trying to maybe use more of the
rubber based on our research on trying to incorporate rubber in the other layers.
where the research is heading right now. And we partner with CalRecycle with a lot of our research.
I appreciate that and great, great work. I know, I went on a tour a couple years ago in Canada,
I think it was British Columbia, where they had a full facility where they basically recycled all
of their aggregate. Oh, right. And I don't know if it was a private facility, obviously. And I know
No, to answer your question, Commissioner, the industry is adopting and moving towards these kind of business practices as an opportunity in California to meet the need.
So your program, is it pretty much Caltrans run as far as the Recycle, the RAP and in the RAC, the Recycle Concrete Program, is that all done within Caltrans itself or is it private sector work?
So all the work, all the funding comes from Caltrans, but we partner through contract
with academia. UC Davis has a very big facility, the UC Pavement Research Center. They do a lot
of research for us. Chico State does a lot of research for us. Oregon State University does
a lot of research.
But as far as the, and then we have a forum called
the Pavement Materials Partnering Committee, where
we have industry members come in.
And they help us with these new innovative ideas
and incorporating them into our standard specifications
and test methods.
So I think, so it is Caltrans led,
but we definitely use the help with a lot of our partnerships.
Thank you. Vice chair. Thank you, Mr Chair. Given all the questions and the discussion from the dais, you really made this really hip. Congratulations.
My question. Well, let me let me give an example. It was stimulated by your your presentation. An example of recycling right now is in San Diego. So as you know,
our airport was rebuilt terminal one and lots of cement and my understanding is that that
cement is being reused for the construction of the Otai Mesa East port of entry. And so
my question is kind of focused on what are the opportunities, other opportunities for
for recycling, barring any large infrastructure projects
where you're reusing cement.
And as you know, recycling isn't always,
looking at some of the questions that my colleagues have asked
in terms of cost and how that ties into our funding programs.
Recycling isn't always cheaper.
And so how do you kind of measure what types of aggregate
can be reused that is cost-effective and still has the integrity to
be utilized in our highway infrastructure. So you know we are using
recycled aggregate and concrete. I have to say that we do need to do a little
more research to really fully implement it with our standard specifications and
test methods. There's significant opportunities there. We're looking at
recycled aggregate for the base layers and the sub base layers. That's where
we're going into because you know we use a lot of it for a surface wearing
course. I'm sorry your second question was the second part? Cost-effectiveness.
So this is it because there's so many variables out there in the
field like your material sources you know a source in San Diego is going to
be very different from a source in Reading.
So because there's so many variability in your materials,
your site conditions, the traffic, those do play in.
We're finding that for cold recycling,
for the cold recycling aspect, for the low and medium volume
roads, it is maybe initially a little more expensive.
But what you have to look at is the life cycle costs.
And that's where when you look at the life cycle impact,
is you're seeing that upfront you're
saving on all those greenhouse gas emissions.
So maybe it is a little more expensive,
but the impact for the environment is huge.
And that's what we do.
We do an LCA, a Life Cycle Assessment for Environment,
and it brings to light those kind of factors.
But, you know, there are larger projects where it is cost competitive.
So it, so upfront, it's not always expensive. Um,
but yes, there are situations when it can be more expensive,
but then the life cycle analysis always comes out a win.
So thank you. Thank you, commissioner.
Very, very popular subject. Um,
so just to follow up a little bit on that, I'm just curious.
So on projects, we go out to bid and generally, I assume,
go with the lowest bidder.
But if you're comparing apples to apples,
and one bid is one material that has a, it's cheaper,
but it has a shorter lifecycle.
So in the long run, you're better off
with a slightly higher bid.
How do you address that, or do you address that?
I'm curious.
At the bid stage, I don't think we're there yet.
But definitely in the design stage and without materials,
we're moving towards it.
In fact, something very exciting happening
is something called environmental product
declarations.
It's a pilot right now.
We're collecting data.
It's almost like getting a nutritional label
for a material, like asphalt or concrete.
And that nutritional label kind of tells you
the environmental impact of that material over its lifecycle.
It's really exciting.
We've started this.
And the hope is that that's going
to be available for designers and practitioners,
that they'll be able to compare materials
and be able to gauge the lifecycle impacts.
Thank you.
Thank you, commissioner.
You might have already asked this, I mean answered this.
if so, I apologize, but do you assign a numerical value
to the environmental side?
So a numerical value to kind of rate the material?
Yeah.
No, we don't assign a numerical value to the material,
but we do look at the material and its environmental impact.
We are moving towards a tool.
It's still in development, where we're
hoping that tool will be available for designers
so that they can use such a rating system.
It's under development, yeah.
All right, very cool.
Thank you.
Yes, Commissioner.
Also, with this issue, when we're talking costs,
I know it's very, very energy intensive
to produce new asphalt and especially new cement.
Is the energy intensity just as high
producing a recycled product?
If we're talking GHG and cost,
I mean, that's important, right?
So, okay, so you do have to separate this.
So if I'm talking cold recycling,
well, then I'm not bringing in any new material.
So I don't have any new manufacturing costs.
There's manufacturing and there's transportation costs.
So we don't have that.
If you're talking wrap, well, there's piles of wrap already
lying around that you can crush and use.
So again, you're saving on those manufacturing and manufacturing
costs.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Apologies to my colleagues, but I came up
with another question.
I mean, this ended up being a more exciting topic than one
would think, correct?
OK.
Yeah.
So when you talk to environs a lot,
they'll talk about the environmental degradation
from tires.
Yes.
Do any of these processes reduce that environmental damage
from tires?
Like EVs, for example, are heavy.
So it stirs up a lot of particles in the air,
I guess, from the tires.
And I'm wondering if any of these recycle, reuse,
kind of reduce that problem.
So there's two aspects to this.
So you know the tires, when they run on the pavement,
they degrade, right?
There's tire debris.
That still happens.
But when we recycle, cold in place, no.
So when we recycle the tires,
we're actually combining it into the asphalt mix
and then laying it on the top surface.
So the rubber particles that are in our asphalt mix,
they're not loose and they don't fly around or degrade, no.
So in fact, a very interesting thing is that
our asphalt pavement, like certain types of surfacing,
like friction courses actually trap particles.
So they really work out as good treatment BMPs.
So just a fun thing.
Bingo, that's exactly what I was looking for.
That was cool, so it swaps the tire particles.
Very cool.
That should be wider.
I didn't know that.
That should be known out there more,
the best possible.
Any other questions from the dais?
Thanks so much for a fun conversation.
All right.
thank you, Kishmesh, yes, thank you.
So item 23, am I right?
Yeah, item 23, Tim.
Can you hear me?
There we go.
I have to say I'm impressed that she was able to field
all of those questions from any of everyone.
Tab 23 is an information item.
SB1 legislation states the department shall implement
efficiency measures with the goal to generate
at least $100 million per year in savings
to invest in maintenance and rehabilitation
of the state highway system.
These savings shall be reported to the commission.
Angel Pyle is here, Caltrans SB1 program manager,
and she'll be providing a presentation
on the Caltrans efficiencies report
for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
I'll turn it over to Angel.
Excellent.
So thank you very much.
Good afternoon and almost good evening commissioners
and executive director Taylor.
Thank you so much for having me
I'm a pleasure to be here. I actually why Tim was saying I guess hello. We can't really hear you. Unfortunately
Do I have to turn it on? Oh
I'm good now. Oh, I speak directly into it. Okay. Excellent. Thank you
So pleasure to be with you. Thank you for having me
And the reason that Tim was thinking or saying I'm glad that she's here because I came from jury duty directly
So I do live in Placer County. So it was very close to thank you for having the meeting here. Appreciate that
Um, so to that end, I also have my partner in crime here with me, Mr. Tom O'Hare.
He is our building California manager and I'm super excited to have him here
because he's leading a lot of these wonderful efforts and it's truly a team effort.
So with that, um, I'd like to go ahead and go to the video if we can, because
we do have a video for you.
I don't know if hopefully all of you can see it well.
Hello and welcome to the Caltransficiencies Report.
Today we will cover what is required by SB1 legislation, provide a summary and highlights
of fiscal year 23-24, talk about our new online efficiencies report, and the Building California
website.
Senate Bill 1 requires Caltrans to identify at least $100 million per year in efficiencies
that are available to invest back into the state highway system.
The Caltrans Financial Policy Board defines an efficiency by way of cost avoidance or
reduction in support or capital costs.
Most of the savings identified in the report, around 70%, are considered a cost avoidance
and save money through project delivery innovations and longer life assets.
In fiscal year 23-24, Caltrans again exceeded $100 million in savings with $176 million
in efficiencies counting towards the SP1 goal.
There are additional savings, mainly legacy practices, that amount to an additional $174
million for a total of $350 million.
Again, most of the savings are from cost avoidance, meaning Caltrans is utilizing alternative
project delivery methods such as value engineering, longer life pavements, and more durable striping
materials to achieve our efficiency goals. We are still seeing continued growth with the
number of efficiencies in the report. Caltrans had six efficiencies in the first report.
In fiscal year 23-24, the number has grown tenfold to 55 efficiencies. We would like to thank
Caltrans leadership and especially the dedicated staff and subject matter experts who continually
support this initiative and strive to improve and grow in this area. A snapshot of our top
efficiencies shows most of the savings come from project delivery and maintenance. Nearly all
divisions in Caltrans contribute to the effort and every dollar counts. Savings in the report
varies from millions of dollars to hundreds of dollars. In fiscal year 23-24 we had seven
efficiencies that were new to the report, contributing $34 million to SP1 savings.
We have also seen additional savings from growing drone usage for a variety of activities
and fuel smog and maintenance savings through our expanding zero-emission vehicle fleet.
The efficiencies team is excited to introduce our own innovation and efficiency with our new
online report, which is housed on the Building California or Building CA website.
Previously, the report was created and sent to a graphic designer to refine and finalize.
However, when edits were needed, it involved a lot of back and forth between subject matter experts.
Creating the report online gives us the ability to draft, edit, and complete the reports with
resources at our fingertips. This new process saves many hours of staff time and thousands
of dollars for producing each report. The new online report is accessible on any device,
PC, tablet, smartphone, and it positions Caltrans at the forefront of technology
with a modern and fresh approach. Each efficiency shows an overview and the ability to drill down
for more details. There's also the ability to embed media into the report, displaying current
project photos, videos, websites and other digital media to tell the story. The report can easily be
shared to social media with one click, and you can report an efficiency to the program
by submitting an online form which goes directly to the efficiencies program.
As part of our commitment to transparency and accountability under SB1, the Building CA website
serves as a robust multipurpose platform. It provides access to efficiencies reports and
enables users to review progress updates, detailed project information, before and after photos,
and news related to SB1 and IGIA initiatives. The site also offers comprehensive information on a
wide range of California infrastructure projects, including broadband expansion and zero-emission
and vehicle efforts, making it an essential resource for stakeholders and the public alike.
A feature on the Building CA website we'd like to highlight is the project map.
The map shows projects that are planned, in construction, and completed with more than
26,000 transportation project records currently on the map.
The map is sortable by congressional district, project type, on or off system to name a few.
And the data is downloadable.
There's a new projects near me function that will let a user see projects that are in a
defined radius to them so they can see that new bike lane or highway maintenance project
improving their community. Building CA is also home to SB1 progress reports. These reports are
part of the accountability and transparency built into SB1 and are required semi-annually.
The next report is due to the Commission in March and will highlight progress through
before and after photos using a flipbook platform. There are many other accomplishments on display
on the website including dashboards and updated investment amounts for California transportation
projects and programs. We've only scratched the surface on the features of the Building CA website
so we encourage you to spend some time with it at buildingca.ca.gov or just search for Building CA
online. Thank you for your time. This concludes our presentation and we'll send it back to Angel Pyle.
All right, hopefully that was something different for you guys. We wanted to do a very robust
presentation for you. We didn't know at the time I may or may not be here,
but we wanted to put some different variety in it nevertheless. So I'm
happy to take any questions you have. Thank you so much. Any public comment
on this item? No, there's no request to comment on the item. All right. Thank
you. Questions, comments. I see Commissioner Tiffany.
Um, good afternoon. Thank you for the report. Um, so kind of, uh, following
up with uh some of what we were discussing in the last report uh getting to you know lessons learned
which is one of you know all of our favorite subjects here um i see for example um the number
one efficiency savings construction manager general contractor 66 million dollars it's a lot of money
of course so my question is is that going to be applied across the entire state that approach i
I mean, I know that's a very simple questions I realized,
but if there's that kind of efficiency with that approach,
it would make sense that that approach is used
in more and more projects.
So I mean, you know, and I'm just using that as one example,
but I'm just curious, how do you take these efficiencies
and ensure they're not just a one-time savings,
but they're a long-term savings?
Absolutely, I appreciate the question, thank you.
So we look to spread the word about efficiencies
everywhere we can in the department. We do an annual road show internally where we go
up and down the state both in person and virtually to talk to both districts and other divisions
about here's what's in the report, here's what other districts are doing, here's what
other divisions are doing, here's where we're seeing these types of efficiencies. And we're
looking to share those practices wherever we can so that we can maximize efficiencies
that we're seeing in current efforts and in future reports, regardless of if they end up
and something that is showcased in the efficiencies report we're very dedicated
to saving money wherever we can and every dollar counts was included in the
video and folks hear that from me all the time and so that is something that
we truly believe in and we do show that and share that wherever we can we also
partner with our division of research and innovation and system information so
that we're partnering on innovations and if we're seeing an innovation that's
being mastered in a district we work with them also to share it through
avenues that they have as well. Thank you. Excellent. Any other questions from the
dice? I have one kind of tangential question. Of course. We know that the
governor's abundance agenda will also be yielding savings and I'm wondering I
know this is a SB1 container but is that going to be included in the future or is
there like a container for that as well? There is a container for that as well
And also it's really a Caltrans efficiencies report. So we have 350 million dollars in savings in the report
But we count I'd have to look at the exact number. It's a hundred and some change for the SB 1 effort specifically
So we would really look at it as Caltrans
Holistically because we want to count all of the great practices that the department is doing to save money
To that and we also have a separate bucket or container if you will that is led by our division of research innovation and system
information where they're leading
on some of those governor related efficiencies
and we're partnered and we're attached
at the hip with those.
So we do work together to spread the word on those as well.
Excellent.
Anyone else?
Seeing none, thanks so much.
Really appreciate it.
Excellent, thank you for having me.
All right, next up item 24, Tim.
Thank you.
Tab 24 is an information item.
In accordance with the commission's resolution
for leasing airspace to private entities,
Caltrans is required to submit quarterly reports
on the management of its airspace lease program.
These reports keep the Commission informed
about Caltrans progress towards compliance
with the resolutions, Caltrans internal guidelines
and procedures and applicable state and federal laws.
Please note that Caltrans identified some corrections
to the first quarter report that will be reflected
on the change list after the meeting.
Renee Fletcher, Caltrans division chief
of Right Away and Land Surveys,
is here to provide a presentation on the first quarter
of the 2526 fiscal year covering July 1st
through September 30th of 2025.
I'll now turn it over to Renee.
Good afternoon Chair Grisby, commissioners.
Like Tim said, I'm Renee Fletcher,
the Division Chief for Right of Way and Land Surveys
and I'm here to update you
on the first quarter airspace report
and that covers July through September of 2025.
So next slide.
So this presentation will provide a high level overview,
starting with the statistics based on the sites
that are currently being managed.
We have many uses for airspace,
but today I'm gonna focus on four of those uses.
We currently lease 180 sites for telecommunications,
which is the largest number of leases in the program.
We have 179 sites that are leased for parking.
This number may increase as we recently changed our program
to allow for daily vehicle parking as a permitted use.
14 of our sites are leased as open storage.
These sites are currently being evaluated for termination.
And there are 12 mini storages facilities
within the right of way. Moving to inspections, we completed a total of 155 inspections during
the first quarter, and only two of which had minor issues noted by our headquarters office.
For the state fire marshal inspections, 38 inspections were completed. All received a
a failed inspection report.
This is an increase of 19 from the previous quarter.
So going through those 38, 21 are currently being addressed
with tenants to make corrections.
14 are in Los Angeles and are uncorrectable
as they are non-compliant structures.
And three are mini storage units with ongoing issues
that require follow-up inspections. For the 19 new failures, two are located in
District 11 San Diego, two are in District 4, 12 are in District 12, and
five are in District 7. Finally, our current count for tendencies and holdover
is 133. We'll go deeper into holdovers at a future slide. It's important to note
that discount could increase as leases expire and we prepare to go to auction
next slide so highlighting Caltrans headquarters oversight actions include
the following we have been boots on the ground reviewing district inventory to
determine how the policy changes are impacting each district and we are
assisting them in developing a corrective action plan based on the i-10 audit. We have started
quarterly meetings between the districts and headquarters to monitor progress. And our review
identified tendencies that will need to be terminated, recommended for disposal, or a need
to plan an auction. And like I stated earlier, a recent policy change allows for
non adjoining property owners and private entities to lease areas under, over, or next
to structures for daily vehicle parking. This policy has been approved and was implemented
in the first quarter of 2025. Some sites continue to be in holdover while the department implements
the recent policy changes that allow
for this daily vehicle parking.
Next slide.
Open storage.
Per FHWA and our guidelines,
open storage is no longer a permitted use.
We have determined that there are 14 sites
in our inventory that are still considered open storage.
Eight of the 14 sites have been reclassified.
The open storage component of the lease site
has been removed and is no longer being used. In most into instances, the
districts are converting those sites to parking. For sites with active
agreements will be reevaluated for possible exceptions or a change in use
if they are not over, under or next to structures and if they can comply with
the new policies. Prior to October of 2025, the department issued 10
terminations for open storage leases. Through our inventory review meetings
with the districts, headquarters has been able to provide guidance and request
terminations of any open storage agreements that no longer meet our new
requirements. Next slide. Okay, holdovers. So a holdover again occurs when a
the tenant's lease expires and their tenancy reverts to a month to month.
As shown in the data on the slide,
the majority of holdovers are located in district four and district seven.
We currently have 133 tendencies and holdover and
each is under evaluation for appropriate action.
Some may be terminated if their current use does not comply with our new
policy program guidelines. Others are on hold until we can complete an auction or
submit requests to the Commission to directly negotiate. Of note is that
District 4 held an auction this past December for 30 sites and those results
will be included in our quarter two report to the commission. In addition,
districts have been trained on the policy that requires auction procedures
or on how to prepare packages for CTC approval for direct negotiation. The
department aims to comply with holdover policies as quickly as possible and
could include and that could include terminating some tendencies. Next slide.
state fire marshal reports. As we continue to evaluate the inventory with the district staff,
some properties continue to have failed fire, state fire marshal reports. Those sites that
have corrective action and can be exercised will require re-inspection by the state fire marshal.
However, in the most recent meeting with the state fire marshal, it was conveyed that some buildings
that were built in the 1970s were built without permits. Some of these buildings were built in
a manner that unfortunately will never pass State Fire Marshall inspections. And an example
of State Fire Marshall findings include ingress and egress concerns, unpermitted buildings,
and storage of items that are now prohibited. We have learned that tenants have installed
lighting and sprinkler systems in the superstructure.
And to fix these items, a new roof
must be built over the building,
which would be cost prohibited to the tenants
and again, not comply with our new program guidelines.
As state fire marshal issues are daylighted,
the department attempts to work with the tenant
to correct the violations that are correctable.
Some corrections may take weeks and some months
and potentially even longer. The department is discussing the option of lease buyouts
for those tenants that have been in place since the 1970s and are unable to become compliant.
Additionally, the department must plan for the costs of demolition. In addition, if violations
are correctable and not corrected, we will consult with legal and review. Next slide.
Improvements. So Caltrans has made several improvements, measures within the airspace
program guidelines. We have updated the policy to allow private entities, again, to lease
the airspace sites for parking, daily vehicle parking. We have developed a comprehensive
guide for an exception process. All exceptions will be submitted from the district to headquarters
to be evaluated by all stakeholders. And during the fourth quarter, headquarters appraisers
were mobilized to district four to complete lease bid valuations for those properties
with pending vacancies. This measure reduces the risk of homeless encampments and dumping
of vacant parcels within the city of San Francisco. We continue to evaluate open storage sites
for termination or to be brought into compliance. And we have updated the manual to help with
ease of implementing the new policy and connecting the sequences of how to manage the airspace
program. And next slide. So I'd like to conclude with our accomplishments thus
far over the past year. We have trained and prepared the districts on auctions
and statistics will be provided in our quarter two report. We have reduced open
storage from 24 sites to 14 sites. The statewide inventory of the airspace
program has been reduced from 542 leases to 532 leases and we have trained
all district staff on airspace policies and procedures. And lastly so that
concludes my presentation and I'm happy to take any questions. All right thank
you so much. Any public comment? There's no request to comment on the item. Thank
questions or comments for the dais. Hearing none, thanks so much. We're going
to go to the information calendar items 25 through 33. Justin. Thank you
commissioners. Tabs 25 through 33 are information items that have been reviewed
and found to have no issues raised by commission staff. Therefore individual
items will not be presented unless requested by a commissioner. If there are
no questions that will conclude the presentation of the information calendar
thank you now we do item 34 Justin my bad there's public comment for 34 all
right tab 34 is an action item to accept the environmental documentation and
approve future consideration of funding for the US 101 court a Madera Creek
bridge rehabilitation project and the state route 91 improvement project
segment two these projects are in Marin County and Orange County Caltrans
adopted addenda for these projects and found that impacts would not be
substantially greater than what was found in the original environmental
document the US 101 cordimidara Creek bridge rehabilitation had a negative
declaration addendum including impacts remain less insignificant and the state
Route 91 Improvement Project segment 2 had a mitigated negative declaration
addendum including impacts were less than significant with mitigation. Staff
has reviewed this request and recommends approval. All right thank you. So moving
on to public comment we have Martha Armas Kelly. Hello. Good afternoon. We
often we often talk about infrastructure in the abstract but it's
imperative that we make it personal. I saw this clearly during my recent visit
during the storms driving through Stinson Beach exit. In the morning that
thoroughfare was perfectly clear and functional. By the afternoon it was
completely flooded and impassable. This is the reality of our changing climate.
It moves faster than our traditional reactive shifts and can't we cannot keep
up with it. With a rotor path disappearing in the matter of hours it
doesn't just stop traffic, it separates families from their jobs, their schools, and their
peace of mind. The Cort Madera Creek Bridge is a vital opportunity for us to become proactive.
By prioritizing this project, we are creating safe crossways that anticipate the king tides
that happen in that community. It ensures that child walking to school or a mother jogging
in the afternoon can get to and through that thoroughfare
or someone that is trying to get to their job.
We need to look at things in a transmodal aspect
and understanding that people walk, they bicycle
and they should be able to transit and move safely.
This is a dignified choice for everyone,
not only in Marin, but all California.
I ask that the commission's work be considered
in this project and I also thank them
for the 7th Street Bridge in Stanislaus County.
this is just another project that will help ensure safety and modality for all
Californians. So thank you. Thank you. Um, any other public comment? No,
we don't receive any other questions. Comment on the items. Thank you. Um,
any question of comment for guys? Um, hearing none, is there a motion to
approve? So I moved by Commissioner Eager. Is there a second? Second by
Commissioner Gardeno. All those in favor? Opposed? Sentience? Motion is
approved. Going to items 35 through 51. Note for the record, item 38, res O C dash 22 613 has been pulled from consent. It will be dealt with separately. And Justin again. Thank you, commissioners.
Commissioners Tabs 35 through 51 are action items on the consent calendar.
We are going to pull Resolution C22613 from Tab 38 off the consent calendar to be heard separately.
Please make note of the change list for Tab 36.
Additionally, there is a last-minute change that is not on the change list.
Under tab 38 resolution C22616 has been withdrawn and this will be documented on the final change
list after the meeting.
With those changes staff recommends your approval of tabs 35 through 51 with the exception
of resolution C22613 on tab 38 which will be taken as a separate item.
All right thank you.
Any public comment?
There have been no request to comment on any of the listed items.
Great.
Thank you.
Any question or comments for the dais or is there a motion to approve?
Motion.
Motion to approve by Gordino, seconded by Commissioner Cruz.
All those in favor?
Opposed?
Stentions?
Motion is approved.
Now moving to item 38.
This is Rezzo C-22613, Tim.
Thank you.
As previously mentioned, resolution C22613 from tab 38 was moved off the consent calendar
and was done because the CTC staff understands there may be public comment.
Since we pulled it off of consent, I thought I'd at least briefly describe what we're going
to be taking an action on.
To initiate eminent domain proceedings to acquire property for a program project, the
commission must first adopt a resolution stipulating specific findings specified under section
1245.230 of the Code of Civil Procedure resolutions under tab 38 the property
owners are not contesting the findings and the only remaining issue with the
property owners is related to compensation which is not under the
Commission's purview in the case of resolution c22 613 the property owner
signed a possession and use agreement which waves the right their right to
object to the adoption of a resolution of necessity this is an action item and
a little bit more about that.
And the code of civil procedures
specifies eight affirmative
votes are needed for commission
approval.
The staff recommends approval.
Thank you, Tim.
Any public comment?
I do not see any request to
comment on the item at this
time.
Thank you.
Questions, comments, or a motion
to approve on the dais.
So I move by Commissioner Eager.
Is there a second?
All those in favor? Opposed?
Accentions? Motion is approved.
And we are adjourned for day one. Thank you.
Yeah, the mic sounds funny, right? Or not?
Can you hear, like, the mic? Yeah, it sounds like it's working.
Does it sound like you? Yeah.