California Transportation Commission: state transportation improvement program: capital outlay support.

Existing law requires the California Transportation Commission to biennially adopt a state transportation improvement program that lists all capital improvement projects that are expected to receive an allocation of state transportation funds, as specified. Existing law characterizes the state transportation improvement program as a resource management document to assist the state and local entities to plan and implement transportation improvements and to use available resources in a cost-effective manner. Existing law requires the program to specify the allocation or expenditure amount and the allocation or expenditure year for certain project components, as specified. This bill would require the commission to make an allocation of capital outlay support resources by project phase, including preconstruction, for each project in the program. The bill would require the commission to develop guidelines, in consultation with the Department of Transportation, to implement these allocation procedures. The bill would require the commission to establish a threshold for requiring a supplemental project allocation and would require the department to submit a supplemental project allocation request to the commission for each project that experiences cost increases above the amounts in its allocation. The bill would authorize commission to provide exceptions in the guidelines to the supplemental project allocation threshold requirement to ensure that projects are not unnecessarily delayed. The bill would exempt the guidelines adopted by the commission under these provisions from the Administrative Procedure Act.