By VOICE & VIEWPOINT NEWSWIRE
Caltrans is awarding more than $51million in planning grants to 89 projects to help make the state’s transportation system more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Of the total, $48.3 million (94 percent) will benefit disadvantaged communities.
With most of the funding coming from Governor Gavin Newsom’s clean transportation infrastructure package and the California Climate Commitment, Caltrans awarded $51.4 million in planning grants for 89 sustainable, climate-resilient transportation projects throughout California to help communities better withstand the impacts of extreme weather events fueled by climate change.
The selected projects will help reduce planet-warming pollution, improve resiliency of the state highway system, enhance access to safe walkways and bike paths, and expand natural disaster preparedness. Nearly $29 million comes from one-time state and federal sources made possible by Governor Newsom’s historic $15 billion clean transportation package in the 2022-23 state budget to further the state’s ambitious climate goals. Another $12.4 million comes from Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. The awards will fund project planning and conceptual design efforts, helping move the projects closer to construction.
Local San Diego County Projects Include:
- $600,000 for the development of a multimodal mobility plan for the Mid-City San Diego Communities using a complete streets approach to identify improvements addressing safety for bicyclists and pedestrians, improve first-mile/last-mile connectivity to existing and planned transit, and increase multimodal connections to neighboring communities.
- $400,000 for the City of Vista’s Sustainable Mobility Plan to expedite the adoption of complete streets, prioritizing projects that improve safety, accessibility, and convenience for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users.
- $367,591 for NCTD to develop a Gender Action Plan (GAP) to that would mitigate the mobility burden on women and gender nonconforming (WGNC) groups through an outreach strategy, policy, operations, capital improvements, and an implementation plan.
- $344,521 for NCTD to study the implementation of a plan to enhance the travel time efficiency of its BREEZE bus service using advanced Transit Signal Priority (TSP) technology.
