Date: August 21,
2014
District: Headquarters - Sacramento
Contact: Tamie
McGowen
Phone: (916) 657-5060
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Caltrans Continues
its Efforts to be Transparent and Accountable by Reporting on its Achievements and
Where it Needs to Improve
SACRAMENTO
- Caltrans today released the second issue of The Mile Marker: A Caltrans
Performance Report, an ongoing assessment to share with the public the
department’s performance and progress as it works to protect, improve and
modernize California’s transportation system.
"Caltrans is continually moving forward
to be a successful, performance-driven, transparent organization,” said
Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty. “The
Mile Marker is our way of being accountable to the public and stakeholders
on how we are doing on critical transportation metrics."
This
issue shows that Caltrans needs to make improvements in certain aspects related
to its key performance areas: safety, mobility, sustainability, delivery and
maintenance. Caltrans met 5 of its 17 performance targets during this reporting
period, up from four during the last reporting period due to an increase in the
percentage of Caltrans’ total annual state expenditures going to small
businesses. Of the 12 goals not yet met, progress is being made on seven of
them.
"We
are investing in an integrated multi-modal transportation system to move people
and goods throughout California,” continued Dougherty. “Our newly adopted goals
of safety, sustainability, stewardship, system performance and organizational
excellence are clearly articulated and discussed in this issue. We hope you
enjoy it."
The
articles within this issue of The Mile
Marker take a look at several projects and efforts currently underway by
Caltrans that reflect a new mission and focus – providing a safe, sustainable,
integrated and efficient transportation system. These include:
·
Retrofits
of California’s highway lighting system to LED fixtures, which will reduce up
to 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year once complete.
·
The
construction of a new rock shed and bridge along State Route 1 at Pitkins Curve,
which will greatly reduce the cost of maintaining the highway from an estimated
$112 million to only $1.7 million over the next 50 years.
·
An
increase in the number of zero-emission and hybrid vehicles in its fleet in
order to meet Governor Brown’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
·
The
creation of new partnerships with the bicycling community, allowing them to
test different road surface treatments during a pavement improvement project on
State Route 1, and ultimately being able to provide a pavement surface that meets
the needs of everyone using the road.
The Mile Marker is one of the steps Caltrans
is taking to improve its transparency and accountability by making the
department’s work more accessible and understandable to the public. Its
intention is also to quantify and measure the department’s performance – what’s
working, what’s not and what could be improved – based on consistent markers.
“I applaud Caltrans’ continuing
efforts toward introducing performance management within the department, as
evidenced by the release of the second edition of The Mile Marker,” said Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal,
chair of the Assembly Committee on Transportation. “By monitoring
performance data and by reporting on that data, we can better work together to
deliver our highest priority transportation services to the public.”
This
report is an extension of reforms begun by Dougherty since being appointed
director in 2012. That year, Dougherty initiated a program review to evaluate
the entire department and make it more efficient. Caltrans incorporated input
from local transportation partners and worked with the independent State Smart
Transportation Initiative group. Caltrans is using the data from those reviews
as the foundation for a new five-year strategic plan. In partnership with the California
State Transportation Agency, Caltrans has already crafted a new mission, vision and set of goals for the department.
As part of
the program review, Dougherty also made significant changes to the department’s
organizational structure, making Caltrans a leaner, better-organized agency by
merging divisions and functions. Caltrans is also strengthening its
relationship with other agencies by changing the way it does business as
it works with counties and cities to improve transportation across California.
Copies
of this issue of The Mile Marker are available here:
(print)
Caltrans
also releases 23 statutorily required reports on a periodic basis on subjects including
project delivery, finance, fish passage, state rail and highway maintenance.
These reports are located here: http://dot.ca.gov/reports-legislature.htm.
# # #
No comments:
Post a Comment