The California State Association of Counties (CSAC), League of California Cities (League), County Engineers Association of California (CEAC), and the state’s regional transportation planning agencies completed another successful assessment of the statewide local streets and roads network last fall. The 2018 California Statewide Local Streets and Roads Needs Assessment Report (Report) is the sixth report of its kind since the start of this important effort in 2007.

The Report is a comprehensive and systematic statewide assessment of the state’s local street and road network. It includes an analysis of current funding available to cities and counties to maintain the local network and identifies a funding shortfall to preserve the public’s $220 billion investment. It is updated biennially to ensure that information is up to date. The goal of the Report is to educate the public, and policy- and decision-makers at all levels of government about the infrastructure investments needed to provide California with a seamless, safe, and efficient multi-modal transportation system.

The Report continues to be extremely valuable. It was vital to our success telling the story for local streets and roads funding needs while advocating for the first state gas tax increase since 1993: SB 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. The Report also was a critical tool for informing the public about the impact of Proposition 6, which would have repealed SB 1’s new transportation revenues. SB 1 is an extremely important funding source, but does not get us all the way to a Statewide PCI of 80, which is a need of approximately double of what we receive ($3.083B vs need of $6.824B).

The Local Streets and Roads Needs Assessment Oversight Committee (Oversight Committee), consisting of the project manager and representatives from counties, cities, and regional transportation planning agencies, have already begun work on the 2020 Report.  The cost of developing the 2016 and 2018 reports was approximately $600,000. The Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs) contributed $300,000; cities and counties contributed $300,000.  The budget for the 2020 and 2022 reports is anticipated to be $680,000, an increase of $80,000 over the last two reports. The cost for this cycle is larger than the last cycle due to the general increase in costs of projects, including consultant costs. This increase would be shared equally by the regions and cities and counties, each contributing one-third toward the cost, or $226,667.

For the Transportation Agency, the proportionate share of this cost is $2,489, and is proposed to be funded off the top from our share of Regional Surface Transportation Program funds, which is generally in excess of $4 million annually.