Amador County – The Amador County Transportation Commission (ACTC) is in the process of developing projects that will utilize a relatively small apportionment of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding while continuing to seek other ways to reach the estimated $237 million needed for local road and highway improvements. An “obligation list” released last week by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) reveals just how small a piece of the $2.54 billion committed to transportation projects throughout the state was guaranteed locally. So far California has received more funding than any other state in the nation, with an additional $456 million in federal stimulus funds expected to be awarded by April 2010. Caltrans says it was able to “leverage those dollars with other sources of state and local transportation funding – putting a total of $3.8 billion into California’s economy.” But only $1,347,232 made it to Amador County to be used for three projects.
Of that apportionment, $567,000 will go to road sign replacements, $215,000 will go towards Latrobe Road rehabilitation and $512,000 will be used to rehabilitate Michigan Bar Road. ACTC Executive Director Charles Field said Amador County’s allotment was ultimately decided by the State legislature, which chose a distribution formula based on population instead of population and road miles. “We have a lot more road mileage per person, and ACTC lobbied hard for more money but in the end we were unsuccessful,” said Field. Efforts by the California State Association of Counties on behalf of rural areas also failed. Ultimately, the majority of funding was committed to urban areas and Caltrans projects. Field said “it’s important to remember that (ARRA funding) for local roads is small compared to approximately $11.8 million that the cities, county, and ACTC presently have in grant awards for local road projects.” He said ARRA projects must first be completed before paperwork requesting reimbursement is submitted through Caltrans and “a lot of red tape.” “The idea that this stimulus funding was going to solve all our transportation issues was never real to begin with, it was just a shot in the arm,” he said. ACTC, the county and local cities are currently exploring ways to acquire the $128 million for local road rehabilitation and capital improvements and $109 million for Highway improvements identified in the 2004 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). Field said both of these numbers will likely be higher in the upcoming 2010 RTP update. Additional stimulus funds are going to Amador Transit for transit purposes, including $46,779 for on board surveillance and $200,000 for a vehicle locator system. $75,000 in ARRA transit money was also given to ACTC for Amador Transit by Alpine County. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010 18:00
ACTC Explores Funding Options for Road Improvement Projects
Amador County – The Amador County Transportation Commission (ACTC) is in the process of developing projects that will utilize a relatively small apportionment of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding while continuing to seek other ways to reach the estimated $237 million needed for local road and highway improvements. An “obligation list” released last week by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) reveals just how small a piece of the $2.54 billion committed to transportation projects throughout the state was guaranteed locally. So far California has received more funding than any other state in the nation, with an additional $456 million in federal stimulus funds expected to be awarded by April 2010. Caltrans says it was able to “leverage those dollars with other sources of state and local transportation funding – putting a total of $3.8 billion into California’s economy.” But only $1,347,232 made it to Amador County to be used for three projects.
Of that apportionment, $567,000 will go to road sign replacements, $215,000 will go towards Latrobe Road rehabilitation and $512,000 will be used to rehabilitate Michigan Bar Road. ACTC Executive Director Charles Field said Amador County’s allotment was ultimately decided by the State legislature, which chose a distribution formula based on population instead of population and road miles. “We have a lot more road mileage per person, and ACTC lobbied hard for more money but in the end we were unsuccessful,” said Field. Efforts by the California State Association of Counties on behalf of rural areas also failed. Ultimately, the majority of funding was committed to urban areas and Caltrans projects. Field said “it’s important to remember that (ARRA funding) for local roads is small compared to approximately $11.8 million that the cities, county, and ACTC presently have in grant awards for local road projects.” He said ARRA projects must first be completed before paperwork requesting reimbursement is submitted through Caltrans and “a lot of red tape.” “The idea that this stimulus funding was going to solve all our transportation issues was never real to begin with, it was just a shot in the arm,” he said. ACTC, the county and local cities are currently exploring ways to acquire the $128 million for local road rehabilitation and capital improvements and $109 million for Highway improvements identified in the 2004 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). Field said both of these numbers will likely be higher in the upcoming 2010 RTP update. Additional stimulus funds are going to Amador Transit for transit purposes, including $46,779 for on board surveillance and $200,000 for a vehicle locator system. $75,000 in ARRA transit money was also given to ACTC for Amador Transit by Alpine County. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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