Summary
SB-947 ensures that late stage substantial project design changes on state highway projects, where local agencies often bear a significant financial contribution, are not made without justification.
Background
Currently many counties and cities work in tandem with the state to make changes to highways including off ramps and interchanges. Each of these projects can last anywhere from several months to over a decade, with delays adding tens of millions to the total project cost. More complex projects require extensive environmental mitigation, permitting, and project design approvals that must go through several layers of compliance.
One of the final steps in larger project agreements between entities making changes or improvements to the state highway and its on and off ramps is the inclusion of these projects by the California Transportation Commission within the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), or the State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP).
Transportation projects included in these sizable programs can be a decade in the making and garner funding from Federal, State, and local sources. Unfortunately, there are instances of late state project design changes with little justification. When plans of this size change, the local agencies involved are left reeling and must scramble to find funding before pressing time sensitive aspects of the project expire. When project agreements are made and tens of millions of dollars are committed to a specific design there should be no question as to the commitment of state agencies to allow locals agencies to follow through on the project design.
Proposal
SB-947 will ensure that state agencies follow through on their agreements by requiring any project design changes that result in an increased cost after the inclusion of the project in the STIP of SHOPP to be borne by the agency requiring the project change.