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Comprehensive Transportation Projects

State Transportation Improvement Program

The State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is a five-year program of projects that is updated every two years. The funds are divided into two broad programs: the regional component comprising 75 percent of the funds and the interregional component comprising the remaining 25 percent.

Within the regional component, the funds are divided 40 percent to north counties and 60 percent to south counties, and then finally distributed by a county share formula to each of the regions. The county share formula is based on two main factors: population and lane miles of maintained state highway.

SANDAG, as the Regional Transportation Planning Agency, is responsible for submitting the programming request for the county share on a biennial basis.

The STIP is a program of highway, local road, transit and active transportation projects that a region plans to fund with available revenues under the purview of the California Transportation Commission. The program of projects in the STIP is a subset of projects in the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), a federally mandated master transportation plan which guides a region’s transportation investments over a minimum of 20 years. The RTP is based on all reasonably anticipated funding, including federal, state and local sources. Updated every four years, the RTP is developed through an extensive public participation process in the region and reflects the unique mobility, sustainability, and air quality needs of each region. The latest update, San Diego Forward: The Regional Plan, was adopted by the SANDAG Board in October 2015.

In addition to the regional share, the interregional share of the STIP, known as the Interregional Transportation Improvement Program (ITIP) is intended to improve interregional mobility for people and goods in the State of California.

As an interregional program, the ITIP is focused on increasing the throughput for highway and rail corridors of strategic importance outside the urbanized areas of the state. A sound transportation network between and connecting urbanized areas ports and borders is critical to the state’s economic vitality. The ITIP is prepared in accordance with Government Code Section 14526, Streets and Highways Code Section 164 and the STIP Guidelines. The ITIP is managed by Caltrans and funded with 25 percent of new STIP revenues in each cycle. 

Developed in cooperation with regional transportation planning agencies to ensure an integrated transportation program, the ITIP promotes the goal of improving interregional mobility and connectivity across California. Typical ITIP projects in San Diego County have included highway projects along corridors of interregional and statewide significance and projects along the AMTRAK rail corridor.

All projects funded through the STIP in San Diego County also are included in the SANDAG Regional Transportation Improvement Program (RTIP).

2016 STIP

The biennial STIP begins with approval of the Fund Estimate by the California Transportation Commission (CTC). The Fund Estimate is the set of revenue assumptions used to develop the STIP.

The 2016 STIP Fund Estimate covers the period FY 2017 to FY 2021. The CTC adopted the 2016 Fund Estimate at its meeting on August 27, 2015.

The 2016 Fund Estimate added about $46 million of new capacity statewide (after adjustments) over the five-year period with all of the capacity coming in the latter two years. Compared to the 2014 Fund Estimate of $1.3 billion in new capacity, the 2016 STIP reflected a significant reduction.

In January 2016, the CTC approved the revised 2016 Fund Estimate based on assumptions released in the 2016-17 Governor’s budget that reflected a lower projected Price-Based Excise Tax rate. Based on the revised Fund Estimate, the SANDAG Board of Directors approved a revised 2016 STIP that reduced proposed programming by $44 million over the five year period of the STIP.

The SANDAG proposed 2016 STIP approved by the SANDAG Board of Directors in November 2015 and the subsequent update approved by the SANDAG Board of Directors in February 2016 can be found below.

Project Manager

Dawn Vettese, Financial Programming Manager
Phone: (619) 595-5346, Email: dawn.vettese@sandag.org

For media inquiries, please contact the SANDAG Public Information Office at (619) 699-1950 or pio@sandag.org.

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