Caltrans Says Projects Won't Continue For Long Without Federal Funding

The Federal Highway Trust Fund is due to run out of money by the end of summer. About ten percent of the $35 billion fund goes to California for road construction and mass transit projects.  

Matt Rocco with Caltrans says projects under construction would continue -for a short time- if the trust fund were to run out of money.

"The state pays contractors to do the work on the state highway and then we're reimbursed from the federal government. If that reimbursement drops or stops all together, then Caltrans and the State of California needs to make up that difference. However $3.2 billion is a lot of money to make up," Rocco says.

Rocco says projects could continue in California for six-to-eight weeks before Caltrans would have to shut them down. The state would stop any new work.

Seven hundred projects are underway in California that rely on federal funding.  

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a temporary spending plan to put money in the trust fund through May.  The U.S. Senate may vote on the bill next week.