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Caltrans

Coordinates: 38°34′28″N 121°29′37″W / 38.574564°N 121.493660°W / 38.574564; -121.493660
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Not to be confused with Caltrain.

Caltrans
Logo of the California Department of Transportation
Map
Caltrans headquarters building at 1120 N Street in Sacramento, California
Caltrans headquarters in Sacramento
Agency overview
Formed1973; 53 years ago (1973)
Preceding agencies
  • California Bureau of Highways
  • California Department of Highways
JurisdictionCalifornia State Government
Headquarters1120 N Street, Sacramento, California
38°34′28″N 121°29′37″W / 38.574564°N 121.493660°W / 38.574564; -121.493660
Employees22,396 as of 30 December 2024[1]
Annual budget$16.1 billion (FY 2025–26)[2]
Agency executive
  • Dina El-Tawansy, Director
Parent agencyCalifornia State Transportation Agency (CalSTA)
Key document
Websitedot.ca.gov Edit this at Wikidata
Footnotes
[3][4][5]

The California Department of Transportation, branded as Caltrans, is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Sacramento,[6] it is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Among its duties, Caltrans manages the state's highway system, which includes the California Freeway and Expressway System, supports public transportation systems throughout the state, and provides funding and oversight for three state-supported Amtrak intercity rail routes (Capitol Corridor, Pacific Surfliner and Gold Runner) which are collectively branded as Amtrak California.

Caltrans began operations in 1973,[7] succeeding a series of state agencies that date back to the establishment of the California Bureau of Highways in 1895.[8] In 2015, Caltrans released a new mission statement: "Provide a safe, sustainable, integrated and efficient transportation system to enhance California's economy and livability."[9]

History

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Predecessor agencies

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The Bureau of Highways with their buckboard wagon in Riverside County, 1896

The earliest predecessor of Caltrans was the Bureau of Highways, which was established by the California State Legislature and signed into law by Governor James Budd in 1895.[8] The Bureau of Highways consisted of three commissioners who were charged with analyzing the roads of the state and making recommendations for their improvement. At the time, California's roads were purely a local responsibility instead of the state, primarily consisting of crude dirt roads maintained by the counties, as well as some paved streets in certain cities. This ad hoc system no longer became 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 state legislature replaced the Bureau with the Department of Highways.[10]

Due to the state's weak fiscal condition and corrupt politics, little progress was made until 1907, when the state legislature replaced the Department of Highways with the Department of Engineering, within which there was a Division of Highways.[8] California voters approved an $18 million (equivalent to $622M in 2025) bond issue for the construction of a state highway system in 1910, and the first California Highway Commission was convened in 1911.[8] 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 a part of present-day California State Route 82).[11] The year 1912 also saw the founding of the Transportation Laboratory and the creation of seven administrative divisions, which are the predecessors of present-day Caltrans districts 1 through 7.[10]

The state legislature began requiring vehicle registration in 1913 and allocated the resulting funds to support regular highway maintenance, which began the next year.[11] In 1921, the state legislature converted the Department of Engineering into the Department of Public Works, which continued to have a Division of Highways,[12] and also authorized the creation of what would become District 8 in San Bernardino, District 9 in Bishop, and District 10 in Stockton.[12] The state legislature later enacted an 1933 amendment to the State Highway Classification Act of 1927, which added over 6,700 miles of county roads to the state highway system.[12] To help manage the additional work created by this massive expansion, District 11 was established in San Diego.[12]

The enactment of the Collier–Burns Highway Act of 1947 after "a lengthy and bitter legislative battle" reshaped California highway finance on a lasting basis.[13] The act "placed California highway's program on a sound financial basis" by doubling vehicle registration fees and raising gasoline and diesel fuel taxes from 3 cents ($0.43 in 2025) to 4.5 cents ($0.65 in 2025) per gallon. All these taxes were again raised further in 1953 and 1963.[13] The state also obtained extensive federal funding from the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 for the construction of its portion of the Interstate Highway System.[14] Over the next two decades after Collier-Burns, the state "embarked on a massive highway construction program" in which nearly all of the now-extant state highway system was either constructed or upgraded.[14] In hindsight, the period from 1940 to 1969 can be characterized as the "Golden Age" of California's state highway construction program.[15]

Establishment of Caltrans

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Caltrans District 7 Headquarters in Los Angeles, designed by Thom Mayne.
Caltrans District 8 Headquarters in San Bernardino

In 1967, Governor Ronald Reagan formed a Task Force Committee on Transportation to study the state transportation system and recommend major reforms. One of the proposals of the task force was the creation of a State Transportation Board as a permanent advisory board on state transportation policy; the board would later merge into the California Transportation Commission in 1978. In September 1971, the State Transportation Board proposed the creation of a state department of transportation charged with responsibility "for performing and integrating transportation planning for all modes." Governor Reagan mentioned this proposal in his 1972 State of the State address, and Assemblyman Wadie P. Deddeh introduced Assembly Bill 69 to that effect, which was duly passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Reagan later that same year. AB 69 merged three existing departments to create the Department of Transportation, of which the most important was the Department of Public Works and its Division of Highways. The California Department of Transportation began official operations on July 1, 1973.[7] The new agency was organized into six divisions: Highways, Mass Transportation, Aeronautics, Transportation Planning, Legal, and Administrative Services.[16]

Caltrans went through a difficult period of transformation during the 1970s, as its institutional focus shifted from highway construction to highway maintenance.[17] The agency was forced to contend with declining revenues, increasing construction and maintenance costs (especially the skyrocketing cost of maintaining the vast highway system built over the past three prior decades), widespread freeway revolts, and new environmental laws.[17] In 1970, the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act forced Caltrans to devote significant time, money, people, and other resources to confronting issues such as "air and water quality, hazardous waste, archaeology, historic preservation, and noise abatement."[16] The devastating 1971 San Fernando earthquake compelled the agency to recognize that its existing design standards had not adequately accounted for earthquake stress and that numerous existing structures needed expensive seismic retrofitting.[18]

In 1976, Caltrans began promoting intercity passenger rail service, including providing financial assistance to regional Amtrak routes that became branded as Amtrak California.[19]

Maintenance and construction costs grew at twice the inflation rate in the 1970s era of high inflation; the reluctance of one governor after another to raise fuel taxes in accordance with inflation meant that California ranked dead last in the United States in per-capita transportation spending by 1983.[18] During the 1980s and 1990s, Caltrans concentrated on "the upgrading, rehabilitation, and maintenance of the existing system," plus occasional gap closure and realignment projects.[18] To help manage the additional work in the Los Angeles area, District 12 was established in 1987 in Santa Ana to just serve Orange County.[20]

Innovations

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The Four Level Interchange in Los Angeles, completed in 1953, was the first stack interchange in the world.
A Botts' dot, developed by Caltrans engineer Elbert Botts and deployed statewide from 1966.

The history of Caltrans and its predecessor agencies during the 20th century included several transportation firsts, such as the following:

Districts

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Caltrans district map

For administrative purposes, Caltrans divides the State of California into 12 districts, supervised by district offices. Like many state agencies, Caltrans maintains its headquarters in Sacramento, which is covered by District 3. Most districts cover multiple counties. The largest districts by population are District 4 (the nine counties in the San Francisco Bay Area) and District 7 (Los Angeles and Ventura counties). District 12 (Orange County) is the only district with one county. Kern County is the only county in multiple districts, split between Districts 6 and 9.[27]

District[28] Counties served[27] Headquarters Established Notes[10][12]
1 Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Eureka 1912[10] Originally headquartered in Willits, which was the northernmost California Coast Range city connected to the national rail network in 1912.[10]
2 Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Redding Plumas County was transferred from District 3 in 1923.
3 Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba Marysville Originally headquartered in Sacramento.
4 Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma Oakland Originally headquartered in San Francisco. Solano County was transferred from District 3 in 1923.
5 Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz San Luis Obispo Santa Cruz County was transferred from District 4 in 1923.
6 Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and the western areas of Kern[27] Fresno
7 Los Angeles and Ventura Los Angeles
8 Riverside and San Bernardino San Bernardino 1921[12] Split from District 7
9 Inyo, Mono, and the eastern areas of Kern[27] Bishop Split from District 6
10 Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne Stockton Split from District 3, with Mariposa and Merced counties transferring from District 6
11 Imperial and San Diego San Diego 1933[12] Split from District 7
12 Orange Santa Ana[29] 1987[30] Split from District 7

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Caltrans Facts June 2025" (PDF). California Department of Transportation. June 2025. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  2. ^ "The 2025–26 California Spending Plan: Transportation". Legislative Analyst's Office. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  3. ^ "Caltrans Executive Fact Book" (PDF). June 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 15, 2021.
  4. ^ Taylor, Mac. "The 2016–17 Budget Transportation Proposals" (PDF). Legislative Analyst's Office. Legislative Analyst's Office of California. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  5. ^ "State of California Department of Transportation February 2018 Organization Chart" (PDF). Caltrans. February 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 24, 2018. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  6. ^ "Caltrans Mail Addresses Archived 2024-09-22 at the Wayback Machine." California Department of Transportation. Retrieved on November 19, 2009.
  7. ^ a b Karner, Alex (June 2013). "Multimodal dreamin': California transportation planning, 1967–77". The Journal of Transport History. 34 (1): 39–56. doi:10.7227/TJTH.34.1.4. S2CID 108503981. Available through ProQuest.
  8. ^ a b c d Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 11.
  9. ^ "Caltrans Mission, Vision, Goals & Values". Caltrans. Archived from the original on September 22, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
  10. ^ a b c d e Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 12.
  11. ^ a b Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 13.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 32.
  13. ^ a b Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 72.
  14. ^ a b Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 73.
  15. ^ Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 74.
  16. ^ a b Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 128.
  17. ^ a b Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 127.
  18. ^ a b c Raymond Forsyth and Joseph Hagwood, One Hundred Years of Progress (Sacramento: California Transportation Foundation, 1996): 129.
  19. ^ "About Amtrak California". State of California Department of Transportation. 2013. Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  20. ^ Perlman, Jeffrey A. (May 12, 1987). "County's New Caltrans District Offers No Quick Fixes for Traffic Problems". The Los Angeles Times.
  21. ^ Rasmussen, Celia (October 12, 2003). "'Doc June' Drew the Line on Safety". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  22. ^ "Arroyo Seco Parkway". American Society of Civil Engineers. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  23. ^ "Four Level Interchange". Los Angeles Conservancy. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  24. ^ Lamm, Michael (Fall 1996). "Dot Dot Dot". Invention & Technology. 12 (2). Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  25. ^ Mydans, Seth (January 7, 1991). "One Last Deadly Crossing for Illegal Aliens". The New York Times. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  26. ^ Berestein, Leslie (April 10, 2005). "Highway safety sign becomes running story on immigration". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  27. ^ a b c d "Caltrans Districts". California Open Data Portal. Retrieved April 18, 2026. Kern County remains the only split county in the state, between Districts 6 and 9 respectively
  28. ^ "Caltrans District Offices". California Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on February 11, 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
  29. ^ "News Release D12 Move to Santa Ana October 2016 (PDF)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on December 21, 2016.
  30. ^ Perlman, Jeffrey A. (May 12, 1987). "County's New Caltrans District Offers No Quick Fixes for Traffic Problems". The Los Angeles Times.
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