Caltrans announced this week that the state will receive more than $493 million in additional transportation funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s annual August redistribution.

“These federal funds will help Caltrans and local agencies invest in improving the transportation system throughout California,” said Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin. “California has a reputation for maximizing its federal funding and successfully launching infrastructure projects on time, and these additional funds represent our reward for that proven track record.”

Each year, when certain federal transportation funding remains unspent before deadlines, those funds revert to a federal pool and are redistributed to states like California that have completed all requirements and are prepared to use the additional federal funds before the end of the federal fiscal year.

This year, the federal pool totaled about $4.7 billion – of which California received more than 10 percent of the total and more than any other state.

Caltrans received roughly $312 million of the $493 million, and local transportation agencies could receive up to $181 million.

This funding will assist the department’s work throughout the state, including the FixSac5 HOV and Los Angeles County improvement projects along Interstate 5 designed to enhance safety, improve traffic flow, reduce congestion, encourage ridesharing, decrease surface street traffic and improve air quality.

Most of the projects that will receive August redistribution funding are already allocated by the California Transportation Commission and are underway using state dollars until federal money becomes available.

This additional funding will allow Caltrans and local communities to continue tackling California’s infrastructure maintenance needs along with state funding from Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.