A big slice of infrastructure pie
California will reap a windfall from Biden’s plan — if it gains traction
A Biden administration initiative expected to pour up to $3 trillion into repairing America’s decrepit infrastructure and funding other programs has sparked a scramble across the nation for the federal funds — with California expecting to reap the biggest piece.
The potential federal bounty opens the door to a list of ambitious projects: electrifying the Burbank-to-Anaheim passenger rail system, straightening the Los Angeles-to-San Diego rail line to cut travel time, and building a 1.3-mile tunnel to extend a passenger line to downtown San Francisco.
The exact size of the infrastructure plan is in flux, but sources knowledgeable about the discussion put it at up to $2 trillion, with an additional $1 trillion aimed at jobs, education and other goals. President Biden is expected to unveil details during a visit to Pittsburgh next week. Whether such a mas
sive package can get through Congress is uncertain at best.
Biden’s plan is meant to provide enough money to not just repair crumbling infrastructure but transform transportation in America, said Rep. John Garamendi, a Northern California Democrat who is a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Garamendi spent more than an hour with Biden in recent weeks and came away convinced that the program will be broad enough to improve most areas of the nation’s infrastructure: highways, passenger rail, electric grids, dams, sewers and water systems, ocean terminals and airports. “He said all of the above,” Garamendi said.
Amid the bounty of funding, the biggest transportation project in the nation, the $100-billion high-speed rail project, will have to compete for funding with lesserknown proposals in California. Its construction problems, cost growth and delays have muddied its future.
“The demands for political support from other programs are significant,” Garamendi said. “The funding for high-speed rail must contend with the other programs. [It] will get funding, but it will not get funding that beggars the other projects.”
The last time the government launched such a largescale effort was in the 1950s, with President Eisenhower’s initiative to build the interstate highway system. By the time it was finished less than a decade later, 42,795 miles of superhighway had been laid. It remains “the largest human-built thing in the world,” said Federal Highway Administration spokesman Doug Hecox.
Since then, infrastructure spending has been consistently pushed aside. Rusty bridges, faulty electrical grids, contaminated water supplies and potholed highways are fixtures across the landscape. Past presidents have failed to fix the problems, in part because those projects are costly, largely invisible and don’t attract vocal political support.
A priority for Biden is delivering benefits across social and racial lines, as well as broadly addressing climate change. Drinking water has been contaminated in poor communities with inadequate public works, such as Flint, Mich., and California’s Central Valley, and Biden’s plan will probably include fixes.
An all-electrical car fleet will require massive investments in power generation and transmission, also part of the Biden plan.
Climate change is causing sea levels to rise while triggering more powerful storms, threatening coastal highways, rail lines and flood-control defenses.
Garamendi said the size of the infrastructure plan will be determined from a “bottoms up” approach based on what is needed around the nation. At least part of it will be paid with new fees or taxes, such as a tax on vehicles based on how many miles are driven, or a tax on the wealthy.
The speculation that the project will come in at $2 trillion apparently started with the American Society of Civil Engineers, which, in a report card on American infrastructure, found that public works improvements and repairs to raise standards to an acceptable level would cost $2.6 trillion over the next decade.
About half of the faulty infrastructure is in transportation, which the association gave a grade of D.
“We are facing challenging environmental problems, social equity issues and increased severity of national disasters,” said Tom Smith, the association’s executive director. “The time is right for an infrastructure program that could unite and inspire the country.”
The scramble is on among California agencies to get a piece of the funding. A confidential “white paper” circulating among transit agencies, obtained by The Times, provides a list of transportation projects across the state that could compete with the bullet train for funding.
The bullet train has pushed for a big piece of the money. Supporters suggested the Biden administration back $40 billion for the L.A.-to-San Francisco line, enough to potentially bore tunnels through three mountain chains, but the proposal went nowhere, according to individuals with knowledge of the talks.
Brian Kelly, chief executive of the California HighSpeed Rail Authority, said through a spokeswoman that he did not make such a proposal, initially declining requests for an interview.
After a version of this article was published online, he said the rail authority was making progress in restoring a grant the Trump administration had terminated, adding: “We are having very good conversations with the Biden team.”
Indeed, the bullet train faces a tough fight even securing a legislative appropriation of $4.1 billion in its own bond funds it is seeking this year for its Central Valley construction plan. The state Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution last year that would block some of the planned spending in the Central Valley as a prelude to shifting money to Bay Area and Southern California segments.
Support in the House transportation committee is uncertain. Committee Democrats Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach and Marc DeSaulnier of Concord both cast votes as California senators against appropriating money to the bullet train in 2012, against the wishes of former Gov. Jerry Brown. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) is a longtime critic. Newly elected Republican Michelle Steel from Orange County recently introduced legislation that would block any new federal funding for the project.
The shaky outlook has cleared the way for other agencies with proposals that they say can deliver benefits sooner and to more people.
Metrolink Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins has a $10-billion program to upgrade the passenger rail service through 75 projects across six counties — all before the 2028 Summer Olympics. So far, the agency has secured $2 billion in funding, leaving a big gap that the Biden program could help fill.
Wiggins notes that the federal government has always funded transportation and other infrastructure programs in Olympic host cities. Her target for funding from the Biden plan is $3 billion to $4 billion.
Among the most important ideas is building an electrified high-speed line between Burbank and Anaheim, using battery- or fuelcell-powered locomotives. The plan would relieve traffic on busy Interstate 5, reduce pollution and drive up ridership through better service. The line would eventually be part of the bullet train system, but Wiggins said Southern California can’t wait a generation for it to get built by the state.
Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the San Diego Assn. of Governments, wants Biden’s help to electrify the L.A.-to-San Diego passenger rail system. He also wants to smooth out curves, so it could operate at 110 mph and cut travel time between the state’s two largest cities to two hours from the current three and a half. It would also include a onemile tunnel to relocate track on an ocean bluff that is in danger of collapsing.
“The corridor is already the second-busiest in the nation, after the Northeast,” Ikhrata said. “Why not invest in that for a high-speed system?”