U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced $423.7 million for funding in California on Oct. 21, as part of more than $4.2 billion in funding from the Investing in America agenda through two major discretionary grant programs. The National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) grant program and the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program both have historic levels of funding as a result of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
A total of 44 projects were selected in this round of funding, including projects that improve safety, mobility, and economic competitiveness, constructing major bridges, expanding port capacity, redesigning interchanges, and more.
“With this latest round of awards, dozens of major and much-needed projects – projects that are often difficult to fund through other means – are getting the long-awaited investments they need to move forward,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Over the past four years, nearly $12.8 billion in funding through the INFRA and Mega programs has been announced for 140 projects across 42 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, including approximately: 35 large bridge project, 18 large port projects, 20 rail projects and 85 highway improvement projects.
Approximately 53 percent of projects that have received funding to date are in rural communities, and about 42 percent of projects are located in disadvantaged communities.
In the Oct. 21 round of selections, California will be receiving $423 million for four projects, including:
$166,088,235 for the Innovate 680 Program through the Mega program: The project will complete the northbound I-680 express lane gap from SR-24 to SR-242 and convert the existing northbound High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane from SR-242 to north of Arthur Road into an express lane. The project will also construct a braided ramp system between North Main Street and Treat Boulevard interchanges in Walnut Creek.
$54,530,000 for the Madera High-Speed Rail Station Project through the Mega program: The project will construct a high-speed rail station for the Merced-Bakersfield California High-Speed Rail (CHSR) Service. The project will design and construct the Madera HSR Station through improvements at the relocated Madera Amtrak Station location. These include new platforms, trackwork, an overhead contact system, a bus depot, expanded auto parking, an access roadway network, a multi-use path, and a station building.
$98,040,000 for the Tulare SR 99 Corridor and Paige Avenue Multimodal Interchange Improvements through the INFRA program: The project will reconstruct four ramps into a consolidated multimodal interchange, sequential roundabouts at the ramp termini and adjacent local street intersections. In addition, 10-foot-wide Class I shared-use paths will be constructed along both sides of Paige Avenue to provide an east-west multimodal corridor for users. Along SR99, the project will convert 5.4 miles of four-lane freeway into a six-lane freeway utilizing the existing median for planned future managed-lane use.
$105,000,000 for the SR84 - US 101 Interchange Reimagined Project through the INFRA program: The project will replace all ramps at the US 101/SR 84 interchange, widen Woodside Road to six lanes between Bay Road and the northbound US 101 off-ramp at Seaport Boulevard, lower Woodside Road to increase the vertical clearance at US 101, eliminate the 5-leg intersection at Broadway/Woodside Road. The project will also signalize ramp intersections, add turn lanes, construct direct-connect flyover ramps between Veterans Boulevard and US 101 along with adding sidewalks and bikeways address an existing bottleneck caused by weaving at this location. The project also implements Coordinated Adaptive Ramp Metering for a 19-mile segment of NB I-680 and includes a Caltrans truck scale/weigh station.
Applications opened in March under a joint notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for this year’s $5.1 billion Multimodal Discretionary Grant Program, or MPDG, which allows applicants to submit one application for consideration under the Mega, INFRA, and Rural grant programs.
As with last year’s awards, despite these historic increases in funding, these programs were significantly oversubscribed. The Department received approximately 200 INFRA and Mega applications requesting more than $27 billion in funding, far exceeding the amount of funding available.
Applications for the MPDG grants were evaluated based on the criteria published in the NOFO. The criteria included safety; state of good repair; economic impacts, freight movements and job creation; climate change, resilience, and the environment; equity, multimodal options and quality of life; and innovation areas such as technology, project delivery, and financing. The Department also considered cost effectiveness, project readiness, and certain statutory requirements related to funding and design in evaluating the MPDG applications received. Rural Surface Transportation grant applications are still under evaluation, and the Department anticipates announcing selections by January 2025.
