BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 680
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 1, 2013

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                    AB 680 (Salas) - As Amended:  March 19, 2013 

          Policy Committee:                               
          TransportationVote:12-4

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill adds State Route (SR) 43 to the list of eligible  
          interregional and inter-county highway routes, thus making  
          projects on this highway eligible for use of funds designated  
          for these routes.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Addition of this route could change priorities for funding  
          interregional projects, but would not likely change the level of  
          funding made available for such projects.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background  . The interregional road system comprises 34,000  
            lane-miles of the state highway system's 50,000 lane-miles,  
            and is statutorily defined as a series of 93 state highway  
            routes, outside the urbanized areas, providing access to, and  
            links between, the state's economic centers, major recreation  
            areas, and urban and rural regions. Within the interregional  
            road system, there is a subset of 34 high-emphasis routes  
            (24,000 lane-miles) consisting of most of the interstate  
            highways and 10 non-interstate focus routes. These 10 routes  
            represent the most critical interregional corridors and the  
            state's highest priority for upgrading, often to  
            freeway-expressway standards to the extent feasible.  

            Funding for such improvements is limited, however. About $1.1  
            billion is identified for interregional routes over the next  
            five years in the 2012 Interregional Transportation  
            Improvement Program (ITIP)-a level well below that needed to  








                                                                  AB 680
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            address the preservation and expansion needs of the system.

            SR 43 is located in the central San Joaquin Valley and  
            traverses the area in a north-south direction. Agriculture is  
            the most dominant land use along highway corridor. The route  
            is primarily rural with the exception of segments located  
            within the cities of Wasco, Shafter, and Selma and on the  
            outer fringes of Corcoran and Hanford.  The highway often  
            experiences a high volume of truck traffic with several  
            segments experiencing counts as high as 30% to 40% of total  
            traffic volume.  

           2)Purpose  . This bill's sponsor, Kings County Association of  
            Governments (KCAG), emphasizes that commuters use SR 43 from  
            Fresno and Corcoran and Wasco to get to two state prisons that  
            are located on SR 43. Furthermore, the sponsor notes that, in  
            times of accidents on SR 99, SR 43 is used as an alternate  
            route and is easily overwhelmed with traffic.  

            AB 680 adds SR 43 to the statutorily defined interregional  
            road system, thereby making it eligible for funds directed to  
            high-priority routes. In theory, adding SR 43 to the list of  
            eligible routes in an already-severely constrained program  
            would increase the competition for funds amongst other  
            interregional routes. In practice, it is doubtful that SR 43  
            will rise to the level of a high emphasis route or focus route  
            in the foreseeable future and, consequently, may not present  
            any real competition for these limited funds.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081