Agency Allocates $17 Million for Street Repair

The Orange County Transportation Authority on Monday allocated $17.1 million to repair surface streets in Orange County, the largest single allocation the agency has ever made for that purpose.

“There is a definite need,” Dean Delgado, the agency’s principal transportation analyst, said. “There’s been a lack of funding to bring the roadways up to a maintenance condition, and we’re trying to catch up.”

Among other things, he said, the money will help pay for repaving worn streets and for repairing cracked and damaged asphalt. Beginning next month, Delgado said, OCTA staff members will start soliciting applications from cities with street projects in need of funding. Each city selected will be expected to match the agency’s contribution dollar-for-dollar. A list of projects to be funded should be finalized by this summer, Delgado said, with work completed within two years.

“What we will be able to fund with this money will be in the range of 50 projects covering 20 to 40 miles of road work,” Delgado said.

Although OCTA has allocated money for street repair in the past, Delgado said, the average allocation has been $3.5 million per year. And even that had been withheld in recent years because of the county’s bankruptcy and delays in federal funding.

Of the $17.1 million allocation, about $10.1 million will come from savings derived from funds previously allocated but never spent, Delgado said. The rest, he said, is expected to come from the federal government.