The California State Transportation Agency issued final guidelines and a call for projects for the unprecedented $1.2 billion in one-time state funding for port and freight infrastructure projects to build a more efficient, sustainable and resilient goods movement system. (Caltrans photo)

Less than a year after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order targeted at relieving supply chain congestion, the pandemic-induced backlog of cargo ships at the state's ports is rapidly fading. With the focus turning to long-term supply chain improvements, the California State Transportation Agency issued final guidelines and a call for projects for the unprecedented $1.2 billion in one-time state funding for port and freight infrastructure projects to build a more efficient, sustainable and resilient goods movement system.

"California's ports are critical to exporting and importing goods both abroad and throughout the United States," said Gov. Newsom. "After decades of neglect, we are finally making the critical investments needed to modernize our ports — helping us to keep up with demand in a way that is environmentally sustainable and brings our distribution process into the 21st Century."

Finalized in the state budget, the port and freight infrastructure program aims to make long-term upgrades that will increase the capacity to move goods throughout the state while lessening environmental impacts on neighboring communities.

"Thanks to Governor Newsom's leadership, California is investing in our nation-leading supply chain infrastructure like never before to support a cleaner and more dynamic goods movement system that will power our economy for decades," CalSTA Secretary Toks Omishakin said. "I look forward to identifying priority projects as we look to maximize this historic one-time investment."

Seventy percent of the program funding will go to projects that support goods movement through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — the busiest ports in the Western Hemisphere — and 30 percent will fund ports and goods movement infrastructure in the rest of the state.

The Port and Freight Infrastructure Program is a direct result of the executive order Gov. Newsom issued last October that called on state agencies to develop longer term budget proposals that support port operations and goods movement. The program builds off the successful short-term actions by the state to address supply chain congestion.

Project applications are due Jan. 13, 2023 and CalSTA expects to announce the funding awards in March 2023.

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