California Transportation Commission

Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law Number 117-58, November 15, 2021) established the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Formula and Discretionary Grant Programs (BIL §11405). The Formula PROTECT program provides funding to states to help make surface transportation more resilient to natural hazards and disasters, including climate change. This funding can be used to support resiliency improvements, community resilience and evacuation routes, and at-threat coastal infrastructure.

Senate Bill 198 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 71, Statutes of 2022) created the Local Transportation Infrastructure Climate Adaptation Project Program (Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program) and directed PROTECT funding to be allocated through this competitive program. 

The Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program provides funding for the development and implementation of projects that are intended to adapt to the changing climate, increase climate resiliency, and protect at-risk transportation infrastructure as well as vulnerable and under-resourced communities. 

Program Objectives

The primary objective of the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program is to provide support for eligible applicants as they develop and implement local surface transportation infrastructure projects to climate change effects, improve transportation and community resiliency to natural hazards and disasters, and advance environmental justice by directly benefitting climate-vulnerable, underserved, and under-resourced communities. Projects funded by this program must meet each of the following goals:

· Increase climate resiliency and protect at-threat transportation infrastructure using California’s climate projections, as specified in Planning and Investing for a Resilient California: A Guidebook for State Agencies, prepared by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (https://opr.ca.gov/docs/20180313-Building_a_Resilient_CA.pdf).

· Be consistent with state, regional, or local climate adaptation reports, plans, and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Adaptation Planning Guide (https://resilientca.org/apg/) including meeting the climate resiliency goals of the region where the project is located.

· Be developed through outreach to and collaboration with climate-vulnerable, underserved, and under-resourced communities related to the project nomination, consistent with the California State Adaptation Strategy and federal Justice40 Initiative requirements (Appendix B).

· Be consistent with federal Justice40 Initiative which requires that 40 percent of the benefits from federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities to advance environmental justice (https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/).

· Equitably prioritize the distribution of meaningful environmental and climate resiliency benefits and protect climate-vulnerable, underserved, and under-resourced communities, consistent with the California Natural Resources Agency’s California State Adaptation Strategy https://www.climateresilience.ca.gov/. 

Program Schedule

Adoption of Program Guidelines - June 28, 2024 

Call for Projects Opens - June 28, 2024

Project Nominations Due - August 30, 2024

Staff Recommendations Released - February 7, 2025

Program of Projects Adoption - March 2025

Eligible Applicants

Pursuant to Senate Bill 198, the following entities are eligible to apply for funding under the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program:

• Transportation planning agencies. 

• Metropolitan planning organizations.

• County transportation commission. 

• Local or regional transportation entities that are designated by statute as regional transportation agencies.

• Joint powers authorities established with the consent of a transportation planning agency or a county transportation commission for the jurisdiction in which the transportation project will be developed.

• A Local transportation authority.  

• The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.

• A city, county, or a city and a county.

• A federally recognized Native American tribe.

Eligible Facilities

All projects requesting funding from the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program must be federal aid eligible. 

For projects on the state highway system, applicants must submit the State Highway System Project Impact Assessment Form, which may be accessed here: https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/local-assistance/documents/atp/cy6/state-highway-system-project-impact-assessment-form-ctc-0002-modified-031022.pdf.

Eligible facilities for the program include:

• Highway projects eligible for assistance under Title 23 United States Code Section 101: 

      • Roads, streets, and parkways, including any road or street under the jurisdiction of and maintained by a public authority and open to public travel. 

      • Rights-of-way, bridges, railroad-highway crossings, tunnel drainage structures including public roads on dams, signs, guardrails, and protective structures in connection with a highway.

      • Portions of any interstate or international bridge or tunnel and the approaches thereto.

      • Tribal Transportation Facilities - Public highway, road, bridge, trail, or transit system located on or provides access to tribal land that appears on the national tribal transportation facility inventory    (https://www.bia.gov/bia/ois/division-transportation/operations).

• Public Transportation facilities or services eligible for assistance under Chapter 53 of Title 49 that may include transit facilities, publicly owned railroads, active transportation facilities, and public parking structures.

• Port facilities, including facilities that connect ports with other modes of transportation, improve the efficiency of evacuations and disaster relief, or aid transportation.

Eligible Activities

A. Resilience Improvements that improve the ability of an existing surface transportation asset to withstand one or more elements of a weather event or natural disaster, or to increase the resilience of surface transportation infrastructure from the impacts of changing conditions, such as sea level rise, flooding, wildfires, extreme weather events, and other natural disasters [23 United States Code 176(d)(4)(A)]. 

B. Community Resilience and Evacuation Route activities that strengthen and protect evacuation routes that are essential for providing and supporting evacuations caused by emergency events, including: resilience improvements if they will improve evacuation routes, and projects to ensure the ability of the evacuation routes to provide safe passage during an evacuation and reduce the risk of damage to evacuation routes as a result of future emergency events [23 United States Code 176(d)(4)(B)].

      • Applicants must notify the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation prior to applying to the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program for  the construction of new or redundant evacuation routes or for the installation of communications and intelligent transportation system equipment and infrastructure, counterflow measures, or shoulders. [23 United States Code 176(d)(4)(B)(III) and (IV)].

C. At-Risk Coastal Infrastructure activities that strengthen, stabilize, harden, elevate, relocate or otherwise enhance the resilience of highway and non-rail infrastructure, including: bridges, roads, pedestrian walkways, and bicycle lanes, and associated infrastructure, such as culverts and tide gates to protect highways that are subject to, current or long-term future risks from a weather event, a natural disaster, or changing conditions, including coastal flooding, coastal erosion, wave action, storm surge, or sea level rise, in order to improve transportation and public safety or reduce costs by avoiding larger future maintenance or rebuilding costs [23 United States Code 176(d)(4)(C)]. Port facilities and public transportation facilities are also eligible non-rail infrastructure [23 United States Code. 176(c)(3)(B)].

D. System Resilience Elements for projects carried out with PROTECT Formula Program funds, such as natural infrastructure or the construction or modification of storm surge, flood protection, or aquatic ecosystem elements that are functionally connected to an eligible transportation improvement project (Appendix F).

Project examples may be found on the PROTECT Formula Program Implementation Guidance: https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/local-assistance/documents/protect/protect-formula.pdf. 

Funding and Program Cycle

The second cycle of the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program will provide $90,757,602 from the federal PROTECT Formula program.

The Commission will provide a set-aside of five percent of total funding for federally recognized Tribal applicants.  

Projects may be programmed in fiscal years 2026-27 and 2027-28. 

The Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program requires a 20% non-federal match.  

The non-federal share for the second cycle is reduced by 3 percentage points due to the Caltrans State Climate Resiliency Improvement Plan for Transportation (SCRIPT) integration into the California Transportation Plan (CTP) 2050 by addendum.

The non-federal share may be reduced by an additional 7 percentage points if, prior to nomination, the project is included in the Caltrans SCRIPT unconstrained project priority list.

The non-federal share may not be reduced by more than 10 percentage points.

Match contributions may be made from private, local, and state sources. When evaluating matching funds, the Commission will only consider funds that are not allocated by the Commission on a project-specific basis, except for State Transportation Improvement Program and Local Partnership Formulaic Program funds.

The matching funds must be expended concurrently and proportionate to the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program. Costs incurred prior to allocation will not be counted towards the match.