Dive Brief:
- California launched a new state website this week to track $180 billion in infrastructure projects over the next 10 years, according to the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
- Build.ca.gov tracks projects that have benefited from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and includes fast-tracked jobs aimed at building a 100% clean electric grid, boosting the state’s water supply and modernizing its transportation system.
- Newsom signed an executive order last May to establish an Infrastructure Strike Team to remove barriers to project development in California’s notoriously slow permitting process.
Dive Insight:
The website features a map that spotlights numerous projects, from a solar energy storage site in Kings County north of Los Angeles to a new border crossing facility in San Diego and Bosch’s $1.5 billion investment in a chip fab in Northern California, which was spurred in part by a $25 million state tax credit.
But while Newsom’s administration has been successful in speeding up some projects — damage from a fire on the I-10 freeway in Los Angeles was addressed in days, rather than the months initially estimated — other large-scale projects have suffered from the quagmire of Golden State politics.
For instance, California’s high-speed rail project between San Francisco and Los Angeles was originally estimated to cost $9 billion and be completed in 2020. Since then, the project’s price tag has ballooned to $128 billion, with the first trains now slated for passenger service in 2030 to 2033 at the soonest.
The new website doesn’t mention those costs, however, and instead emphasizes the project “will boost our economy and connect more regions than ever before.”
Still, while more details are available on some projects than others — the site’s high-speed rail spotlight page links to other pages with more info — it does provide a single-screen, interactive view into projects happening around the state.
California isn’t alone in highlighting projects that have benefited from infrastructure dollars. Wisconsin has also launched a site to track its benefits from the IIJA, as has Massachusetts. The White House unveiled a tracker and map of funded projects last year.