On May 21, The California Department of Transportation awarded $40.5 million in grant monies to fund a range of local projects focused on reducing transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.

[Above photo by Caltrans.]

That included $31 million in “sustainable communities” grants, with $18 million funding 53 local and regional multimodal transportation and land use planning projects, with another $12.5 million assigned to metropolitan planning organizations, aimed at everything from bikeway feasibility studies to the development of natural disaster evacuation plans.

Additionally, Caltrans awarded $6 million in “adaptation planning” grants to 19 projects throughout the state, with 13 projects sharing a total of $3.8 million in federally-funded “strategic partnership” grants.

“From fire preparedness to transit improvements to paving the way for a bicycle superhighway, planning is a crucial first step in creating projects that can help us prepare for the effects of climate change,” noted Caltrans Director Laurie Berman in a statement.

The agency also recently provided an update on its efforts to repair State Route 2 in the Angeles National Forest, which was damaged by a dirt and rock slide, using a specialized piece of machinery known as a “Spyder excavator.”