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The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) released a list of transportation projects across the state that will be financed in part by $2.54 billion from President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) — more than any other state in the nation. The funding, which was fully obligated on Feb. 18, 2010, has been designated to 907 projects, and of these, 516 projects worth $2.5 billion have been awarded contracts to begin work. An additional $456 million in federal stimulus funds are expected to be awarded to 103 projects by April 2010.

“One year after the Recovery Act was signed, California continues to work around the clock to get every possible dollar into our state to provide a much-needed boost to create jobs and jumpstart the economy,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “Creating jobs and repairing California’s infrastructure are two of my top priorities, and I’m pleased to report that the Recovery Act funds coming to California are doing both.”

Using the $2.54 billion in stimulus funds, Caltrans 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.

Under the guidelines of the Recovery Act, states were given 120 days to obligate half of their federal stimulus transportation funding to projects — which California completed more than two months ahead of schedule. California was the first state in the nation to obligate $1 billion (May 2009) and $2 billion (September 2009) from the Recovery Act to both improve its highways and local streets.

In addition to $2.54 billion in stimulus money for highways and local streets, California will receive $1 billion for transit projects. In January, California was awarded more than $2.3 billion for its high-speed intercity rail, the largest allocation in the nation. The state also received an additional $130 million in new funding for four highway, local street, rail, and port projects across the state from the Recovery Act’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grant program.

To view a list of transportation projects that have been federally obligated Recovery Act funding to date, visit www.dot.ca.gov/docs/obligatedlist.pdf. For more information on the Recovery Act, visit www.recovery.ca.gov.