California Department of Transportation
Encyclopedia
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is a government
department in the U.S. state
of California
. Its mission is to improve mobility across the state. It manages the state highway system
(which includes the California Freeway and Expressway System
) and is actively involved with public transportation systems throughout the state. The department is part of the state cabinet
-level California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency
. Its headquarters is in Sacramento
.
The earliest predecessor of Caltrans was the Bureau of Highways, which was created by the California Legislature and signed into law by Governor James Budd
in 1895. This agency consisted of three commissioners who were charged with analyzing the state road system and making recommendations. At the time, there was no state highway system, since roads were purely a local responsibility. The roads of California consisted of crude dirt roads maintained by county governments as well as some paved roads within city boundaries, and this ad hoc system was no longer adequate for the needs of the state's rapidly growing population. After the commissioners submitted their report to the Governor on November 25, 1896, the Legislature replaced the Bureau with the Department of Highways.
Due to the state's weak fiscal condition and corrupt politics, little progress was made until 1907, when the Legislature replaced the Department of Highways with the Department of Engineering, within which there was a Division of Highways. The voters approved a $18 million bond issue for the construction of a state highway system in 1910 and the first Highway Commission
was convened in 1911. On August 7, 1912, the Department broke ground on its first construction project, the section of El Camino Real
between South San Francisco
and Burlingame
(now part of California State Route 82
). 1912 also saw the founding of the Transportation Laboratory and the creation of seven administrative divisions (the predecessors of the 12 district offices that exist today).
In 1913, the Legislature started requiring vehicle registration and allocated the resulting funds to support regular highway maintenance, which began the next year.
In 1921, the Legislature turned the Department of Engineering into the Department of Public Works.
The history of Caltrans and its predecessor agencies during the 20th century was marked by many firsts. It was one of the first agencies in the U.S. to implement the painting of centerlines on highways statewide (thanks to June McCarroll
); the first to build a freeway west of the Mississippi (the Pasadena Freeway
); the first to build a four-level stack interchange
; the first to develop and deploy nonreflective raised pavement markers, better known as Botts' dots
; and one of the first to implement dedicated freeway-to-freeway connector ramps for high-occupancy vehicle lane
s.
In late 1972, the Legislature approved a reorganization (suggested by a study initiated by Governor Ronald Reagan
), in which the Department of Public Works was merged with the Department of Aeronautics to become the modern Department of Transportation.
; District 12 (Orange County
) is the only district with one county. The largest districts by population are District 4 (San Francisco Bay Area
) and District 7 (Los Angeles
and Ventura
counties). Like most state agencies, Caltrans maintains its headquarters in Sacramento
, which is covered by District 3.
, the reconstruction of the SR 91
/SR 60
/I-215
interchange, the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (East Span), and the Devil's Slide tunnel on Highway 1 in San Mateo County scheduled to be completed in 2011.
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
department in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Its mission is to improve mobility across the state. It manages the state highway system
State highways in California
Each state highway in the U.S. State of California is maintained by the California Department of Transportation and is assigned a Route number in the Streets and Highways Code . Most of these are numbered in a statewide system, and are known as State Route X...
(which includes the California Freeway and Expressway System
California Freeway and Expressway System
The California Freeway and Expressway System is a system of existing or planned freeways and expressways in the U.S. state of California. It is defined by the Streets and Highways Code.-List of roads in the system:*State Route 1 *State Route 2...
) and is actively involved with public transportation systems throughout the state. The department is part of the state cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
-level California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency
California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency
The California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency is a state cabinet-level agency in the government of California. The Business, Transportation and Housing Agency is responsible for oversight of 14 offices and departments and four economic development programs and initiatives within the...
. Its headquarters is in Sacramento
Sacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
.
History
James Budd
James Herbert Budd was an American lawyer and Democratic politician. Involved in federal and state politics, Budd was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the 2nd California district from 1883 to 1885, and later elected as the 19th Governor of California from 1895 until...
in 1895. This agency consisted of three commissioners who were charged with analyzing the state road system and making recommendations. At the time, there was no state highway system, since roads were purely a local responsibility. The roads of California consisted of crude dirt roads maintained by county governments as well as some paved roads within city boundaries, and this ad hoc system was no longer adequate for the needs of the state's rapidly growing population. After the commissioners submitted their report to the Governor on November 25, 1896, the Legislature replaced the Bureau with the Department of Highways.
Due to the state's weak fiscal condition and corrupt politics, little progress was made until 1907, when the Legislature replaced the Department of Highways with the Department of Engineering, within which there was a Division of Highways. The voters approved a $18 million bond issue for the construction of a state highway system in 1910 and the first Highway Commission
California Highway Commission
The California Highway Commission was established in 1895 and continued until 1978 as the primary state highway bureaucracy in California.Their first noticeable efforts centered on the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road over the Sierra Nevada mountains...
was convened in 1911. On August 7, 1912, the Department broke ground on its first construction project, the section of El Camino Real
El Camino Real (California)
El Camino Real and sometimes associated with Calle Real usually refers to the 600-mile California Mission Trail, connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions , 4 presidios, and several pueblos, stretching from Mission San Diego de Alcalá in San Diego...
between South San Francisco
South San Francisco, California
South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area...
and Burlingame
Burlingame, California
Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame. It is renowned for its many surviving examples of Victorian architecture, its affluence, and...
(now part of California State Route 82
California State Route 82
State Route 82 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs from U.S. Route 101 at Blossom Hill Road in San Jose to Interstate 280 in San Francisco following the San Francisco Peninsula...
). 1912 also saw the founding of the Transportation Laboratory and the creation of seven administrative divisions (the predecessors of the 12 district offices that exist today).
In 1913, the Legislature started requiring vehicle registration and allocated the resulting funds to support regular highway maintenance, which began the next year.
In 1921, the Legislature turned the Department of Engineering into the Department of Public Works.
The history of Caltrans and its predecessor agencies during the 20th century was marked by many firsts. It was one of the first agencies in the U.S. to implement the painting of centerlines on highways statewide (thanks to June McCarroll
June McCarroll
June Hill Robertson McCarroll was a nurse with the Southern Pacific Railroad in the early twentieth century who is credited by Caltrans with the simple but revolutionary idea of delineating highways with a painted line to separate lanes of traffic...
); the first to build a freeway west of the Mississippi (the Pasadena Freeway
Pasadena Freeway
The Arroyo Seco Parkway, formerly known as the Pasadena Freeway, is the first freeway in California and the western United States. It connects Los Angeles with Pasadena alongside the Arroyo Seco. It is notable not only for being the first, mostly opened in 1940, but for representing the...
); the first to build a four-level stack interchange
Four Level Interchange
The Four Level Interchange was the first stack interchange in the world. Completed in 1949 and fully opened in 1953 at the northern edge of downtown Los Angeles, California, USA, it connects U.S...
; the first to develop and deploy nonreflective raised pavement markers, better known as Botts' dots
Botts' dots
Botts' dots are round nonreflective raised pavement markers. In many U.S. states and in several other countries, Botts' dots are used to mark lanes on highways and arterial roads. They provide tactile feedback to drivers when they move across designated travel lanes, and are analogous to rumble...
; and one of the first to implement dedicated freeway-to-freeway connector ramps for high-occupancy vehicle lane
High-occupancy vehicle lane
In transportation engineering and transportation planning, a high-occupancy vehicle lane is a lane reserved for vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers...
s.
In late 1972, the Legislature approved a reorganization (suggested by a study initiated by Governor Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
), in which the Department of Public Works was merged with the Department of Aeronautics to become the modern Department of Transportation.
Administration
For administrative purposes, Caltrans has divided the state of California into 12 districts supervised by district offices. Most districts cover multiple countiesCounty (United States)
In the United States, a county is a geographic subdivision of a state , usually assigned some governmental authority. The term "county" is used in 48 of the 50 states; Louisiana is divided into parishes and Alaska into boroughs. Parishes and boroughs are called "county-equivalents" by the U.S...
; District 12 (Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
) is the only district with one county. The largest districts by population are District 4 (San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
) and District 7 (Los Angeles
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...
and Ventura
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
counties). Like most state agencies, Caltrans maintains its headquarters in Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, which is covered by District 3.
Districts
| District | Area (Counties) | Headquarters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino | Eureka Eureka, California Eureka is the principal city and the county seat of Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 27,191 at the 2010 census, up from 26,128 at the 2000 census.... |
| 2 | Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity; portions of Butte and Sierra | Redding Redding, California Redding is a city in far-Northern California. It is the county seat of Shasta County, California, USA. With a population of 89,861, according to the 2010 Census... |
| 3 | Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo,Yuba | Sacramento Sacramento, California Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,... |
| 4 | Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, | Oakland Oakland, California Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724... |
| 5 | Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz | San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, California San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities... |
| 6 | Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Kern | Fresno Fresno, California Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation... |
| 7 Caltrans District 7 Headquarters The Caltrans District 7 Headquarters building at 100 South Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles, California serves the California Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Built on a $165,000,000 budget it opened on September 24 2004... |
Los Angeles, Ventura | Los Angeles Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California... |
| 8 | Riverside, San Bernardino | San Bernardino San Bernardino, California San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area , and serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States... |
| 9 | Inyo, Mono | Bishop Bishop, California Bishop is a city in Inyo County, California, United States. Though Bishop is the only city and the largest populated place in Inyo County, the county seat is Independence. Bishop is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley, at an elevation of 4147 feet . The population was 3,879 at the... |
| 10 | Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne | Stockton Stockton, California Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city... |
| 11 | Imperial, San Diego | San Diego San Diego, California San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round... |
| 12 | Orange | Irvine Irvine, California Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California... |
Current projects
Several important projects include Interstate 105Interstate 105 (California)
Interstate 105 is an Interstate Highway in southern Los Angeles County, California that runs east–west from near the Los Angeles International Airport to Norwalk...
, the reconstruction of the SR 91
California State Route 91
State Route 91 is a major east–west freeway located entirely within Southern California and serving several regions of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area...
/SR 60
California State Route 60
State Route 60 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs from Interstate 10 near the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles east to I-10 in Riverside County, with overlaps at State Route 57 and Interstate 215.-Route description:...
/I-215
Interstate 215 (California)
Interstate 215 is a long north–south Interstate highway in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. It is an auxiliary route of Interstate 15 , running from Murrieta to northern San Bernardino...
interchange, the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (East Span), and the Devil's Slide tunnel on Highway 1 in San Mateo County scheduled to be completed in 2011.
See also
- FasTrakFasTrakFasTrak is the electronic toll collection system used in the state of California in the United States. The system is used statewide on all of the toll roads, toll bridges, and high occupancy/toll and express toll lanes along the California Freeway and Expressway System.As with other ETC systems,...
- U.S. Department of Transportation
- International Grooving & Grinding AssociationInternational Grooving & Grinding AssociationThe International Grooving & Grinding Association is a non-profit trade association founded in 1972 that represents the industry that performs grooving and grinding of both concrete and asphalt surfaces in addition to Concrete Pavement Restoration and Concrete Pavement Preservation methods...
- List of roads and highways
- State highways in CaliforniaState highways in CaliforniaEach state highway in the U.S. State of California is maintained by the California Department of Transportation and is assigned a Route number in the Streets and Highways Code . Most of these are numbered in a statewide system, and are known as State Route X...
- Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (Caltrans-related controversy)
- Caltrans Division of RailAmtrak CaliforniaAmtrak California is a brand name used by the Caltrans Division of Rail for all state-supported Amtrak rail routes within the U.S. State of California...
, also known as Amtrak California - 511 Contra Costa511 Contra Costa-About 511 Contra Costa: is a comprehensive transportation demand management program that implements vehicle trip reduction and air quality programs on behalf of the local jurisdictions in Contra Costa County, California...