Press Releases

For Immediate Release

$779 MILLION IN STATE TRANSPORTATION FUNDS APPROVED FOR BAY AREA

State Transportation Improvement Program Adopted

CONTACT:

Joe Curley
510.817.5847

David Murray
510/464-7766

Oakland, Calif. June 5, 1998 . . . Nearly $800 million in new state transportation dollars will flow to the San Francisco Bay Area over the next six years, following the adoption this week of the 1998 State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) by the California Transportation Commission.

The 1998 STIP boosts statewide transportation spending by $4.6 billion through fiscal year 2004, with $779 million going to help fund projects in the Bay Area. Among the projects receiving funding are: high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes on Interstate 680 near the Sunol Grade in Alameda County and on U.S. 101 in Marin and Sonoma counties; extensions of light rail systems in San Francisco and Santa Clara County; the Translink universal fare card for use on Bay Area transit systems, and a range of other highway, transit, and operational improvements.

"This is an important milestone, because for the first time since 1992, state funding is available for new projects," said MTC Executive Director Lawrence D. Dahms, noting that the recession of the early '90s, demands for seismic retrofit funding, the failure by voters to approve $2 billion worth of rail bonds and other factors had precluded new investments. "After such a long dry spell, these funds are much welcomed -- and sorely needed -- to help fight mounting congestion and improve the overall condition of the region's transportation network," Dahms added.

The new statewide spending plan is also the first to be adopted since the 1997 overhaul of the STIP process mandated by state Senate Bill 45 (Kopp), which enlarged the decision-making authority of regional transportation planning agencies such as MTC, while streamlining state funding programs and increasing funding flexibility. Under the new rules, MTC had project selection authority for $627 million of the $779 million in STIP funds slated for the nine-county Bay Area. MTC's selections are contained in the Regional Transportation Improvement Program, or RTIP, which the Commission adopted in February.

Supplementing the MTC-adopted RTIP in the Bay Area are $152 million in projects contained in the Interregional Transportation Improvement Program (ITIP), which represents projects designated for funding by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Besides identifying additional projects for funding, Caltrans' ITIP targets several projects also included in the RTIP (the planned southbound HOV lane on the Sunol Grade portion of I-680, for example), boosting overall funding for these key items. The $779 million in STIP funding for the region represents the combined total of the RTIP and ITIP amounts for the six-year period covered by the State Transportation Improvement Program.

MTC's Dahms also noted that the May 22nd passage by Congress of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) -- reauthorizing federal transportation programs and leaving intact MTC's authority to program certain federal moneys -- will enable the agency to carry forward with its plans to complement the state funding of new projects with federal dollars targeted more toward operational and system rehabilitation needs.

"The authorized spending levels in TEA-21 are 40 percent higher than in the preceding federal legislation," said Dahms. "We expect to be able to begin allocating our share of this new federal money early next year to ensure a balanced mix of high-priority transportation projects for the region."

MTC is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.