Accomplishments
Transportation/Infrastructure

With landmark investments to improve our infrastructure, the Davis Administration is dedicated to promoting smart growth policies and working with local government to enhance our economic vitality and quality of life.

Housing

Placed a $2.1 billion housing bond on the ballot, the largest housing bond in American history. The housing bond will add an estimated 130,000 affordable housing units and 276,000 jobs.

• Allocated nearly $500 million in state funding for an array of housing programs, more than any previous California Governor.
• Increased the supply of housing while encouraging strategic and sustainable growth.
• Provided $188 million for affordable rental housing through the Multifamily Housing Program and established new homeownership programs to help lower income families become and remain homeowners.
  

Transportation

Governor Davis has committed nearly $7 billion for a multi-year program to improve transportation across California - the single largest General Fund investment in transportation in our state's history. With more than 600 transportation projects under construction all across our state - more than at any other time in our history, Governor Davis has made improving our roadways and railways a priority.

• $5.3 billion Traffic Congestion Relief Program (TCRP), which includes 141 projects designed to relieve congestion, improve goods movement and improve the connectivity between different modes of transportation. It provides significant General Fund resources for expansion of public transit, bus services and other transportation alternatives.
• Signed the landmark High Speed Rail Bond Act to place before the voters in 2004 a bond measure that would fund the planning and construction of a high-speed rail transportation system for California, the largest public works project in history.
• Devoted more than $3 billion for rail and transit improvements.
  

Water

• Signed the toughest water quality enforcement law in the nation requiring mandatory penalties for pollution.
• Campaigned for Proposition 13 - the largest water bond in state history, earmarking $1.9 billion for safe drinking water, flood control, and water conservation.
• Negotiated with the US Interior Dept. to address water supply, water quality, and ecosystem restoration through the CALFED program - the nation's most comprehensive water management system. To date, California has funded $1.6 billion in programs to provide our state with a reliable water future under this 30-year-long program.
  

Smart Growth

• The Governor closed a loophole that allowed developers to subdivide large properties and circumvent environmental and zoning laws.
• Signed legislation requiring major new housing developments to identify a source of water prior to construction.
• Signed legislation to promote cleanup and redevelopment of urban brownfields.
• Signed legislation making sustainable development a priority in California's five-year growth plan.
  

Infrastructure Projects

• Provided the first significant capital for low-cost financing of public infrastructure projects through the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.

California Complete Count Committee

• Created the California Complete Count Committee to reach hard-to-count residents and ensure that California receives its fair share of federal funding for services and programs.

Commission on Building for the 21st Century

• The commission was developed to identify the critical priorities in promoting investment in infrastructure needed for California to meet the demands of population growth, economic sustainability, and quality of life.
• As a result of the Commission's interim report in 1999, the Governor addressed critical bond priorities for housing, parks, open space preservation, water quality sustenance, and transportation.
  

Transportation

Governor Davis has directed his Administration to upgrade thousands of miles of roads and highways across California.

Since 1999, the Davis Administration has been widening roads and highways, modernizing and retrofitting bridges and freeway overcrossings, and investing in high-speed rail. These investments in infrastructure will allow Californians to spend less time stuck in traffic, and more quality time with their loved ones.

Major Investments

• 1 in every 5 miles of California roadway is being upgraded or improved.
• The Davis Administration awarded more than 500 contracts last year on the state highway system – totaling $3.1 billion. In addition to building roads and rail, this funding will create thousands of jobs.
• More than 600 improvement projects are underway, worth nearly $7 billion.
• Invested $3 billion in rail and transit improvements.
• In 1998, the state had nearly $2.5 billion sitting idle in the state highway account. Governor Davis put that money to work across California, delivering priority projects and creating jobs.
• The statewide seismic retrofit program will be completed shortly, ensuring seismic safety across California’s highway system.
• Investments in transit have boosted ridership to well above the national level.
  

High Speed Rail

• Governor Davis signed the landmark High Speed Rail Bond Act to fund the planning and construction of a high-speed rail transportation system for California, the largest public works project in history.
• The high speed network system would eventually move passengers between Sacramento, the Central Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Southern California at speeds of more than 200 mph.
• This legislation places the nearly $10 billion bond measure on the November 2004 ballot.
  

Additional Measures

• Gas Tax -- The Governor signed legislation to place a Constitutional Amendment on the March 2002 ballot to permanently dedicate the entire sales tax on gasoline to transportation. This measure guarantees, for the first time, that the sales tax paid by motorists will be used to benefit motorists. It will provide more than $30 billion over the next 20 years to meet our state’s growing transportation needs.
• Reducing Pollution -- Committed funds to purchase Clean Fuel Buses for communities throughout California and established a "Fleet Greening" initiative at the Department of Transportation and Department of General Services to replace polluting state vehicles and equipment with clean technology.
• Safe Routes to Schools -- Provided funding to improve safety for children going to and from school by adding and improving traffic signals, bike lanes, sidewalks, traffic signs and crosswalks.
  

Transportation projects around California include:

Bay Area

• Broke ground on the $2.6 billion East Span of the Bay Bridge.
• Building an extension of BART to downtown San Jose.
• New trains and tracks for the CalTrain Peninsula Corridor from San Francisco to San Jose.
• An extension of San Francisco's Muni line underground to Chinatown.
• A fourth bore in the Caldecott Tunnel along Route 24.
• 100 new low-emission buses.
• Opened new extension of BART to San Francisco International Airport
• Southbound HOV new lanes on State Route 680 corridor at the Sunol Grade completed; northbound lanes are on schedule.
• New lanes on Highway 101 in Santa Clara County completed.
  

Central Valley

• A new four-lane freeway on Route 180 in Fresno.
• Improvements for the Shaw Avenue interchange at Highway 99, one of the Valley's worst bottlenecks.
• Expansion of Highway 99 to 6 lanes in key areas.
• Expansion of a new four-lane parkway from Highway 99 to Yosemite Avenue east of Merced.
• Track upgrades on the Cross Valley Rail Corridor Project.
  

Inland Empire

• Opened the first piece of California’s first new major freeway since 1993 -- the Foothill Freeway in San Bernardino County.
• Improvements all along Alameda Corridor East.
• Widening of Route 10 through the City of Redlands.
• New connection between Corona's Route 91 and Route 71.
  

Los Angeles

• Widening I-5 to 8-10 lanes.
• New connections between the 101 and 405 freeways in Sherman Oaks.
• A new light rail line from downtown to East Los Angeles.
• $420 million for faster, cleaner buses.
• Currently 125 projects are under construction, totaling $720 million.
• There are four High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) carpool lane projects under construction, for an additional 57 lane miles.
• In February 2002, Governor Davis announced the opening of the first ever carpool lane on I-405 from the San Fernando Valley to West Los Angeles, saving commuters an average of 18 minutes per trip.
  

San Diego

• Widening I-5 to 12 lanes.
• Foundation for a new six-lane highway at SR-905 between I-805 and the Otay Mesa Point of Entry.
• Four new lanes on I-15 in northern San Diego County.
• Four miles of new four-lane freeway at SR-52.
• 20 miles of new light rail between Oceanside and Escondido.
• Groundbreaking on Route 5/805 Interchange.
• Groundbreaking for Route 56 freeway.