Transportation: climate resiliency: projects of statewide and regional significance.

Senators Cortese and Caballero anchor a measure that creates an annual, interagency process to identify highway projects on the state system that serve two or more counties and advance a cluster of policy objectives centered on public safety, economic vitality, climate resilience, and disaster readiness. The proposal requires Caltrans, in coordination with the California Transportation Commission and the Transportation Agency, to produce a prioritized list of such projects each year and to report the list to the Legislature on an ongoing basis.

The measure defines a project of statewide and regional significance as a high-priority state highway project that benefits two or more counties and satisfies criteria in two groups: first, projects that would improve safety on a major goods- and people-movement corridor or support the state’s economy by maintaining or expanding essential transportation routes; second, projects that would enhance climate resilience or address vulnerability to natural disasters, including earthquakes, wildfires, and related extreme events. Projects eligible for the list must be at stages ranging from planning and environmental review to design or further along in development, and the prioritization must give greater weight to cobenefits when more than one is present.

In carrying out the process, Caltrans is to work with the Commission and the Transportation Agency to establish and maintain the annual prioritized list, with a deadline to produce the list by mid-year and to incorporate it into the Legislature’s oversight framework. The annual report to the Legislature is to present the prioritized projects and reflect compliance with established reporting standards, while the measure explicitly does not attach a new funding appropriation to the process. The initiative sits alongside California’s existing climate adaptation program, adding a distinct prioritization and reporting stream focused on multi-county highway projects that address resilience, safety, and economic continuity.

Beyond the procedural changes, the bill articulates findings about the vulnerability of aging transportation infrastructure to climate-related hazards and the potential costs of inaction, and it frames the prioritization and reporting as a mechanism to illuminate cross-county collaboration, align with climate resilience aims, and inform future policy and budgeting considerations. As implemented, the effort would require sustained interagency coordination, early alignment with environmental review timelines, and ongoing legislative oversight through annual disclosures of the prioritized project list.