California’s Infrastructure Advisor, Antonio Villaraigosa, recently hosted two Orange County Community Roundtable Listening Sessions for elected officials and community leaders. OCTA Directors Fred Jung and Vicente Sarmiento joined other elected officials at one of the sessions. OCTA CEO Darrell Johnson participated in a session with other business and community leaders including UC Irvine’s Chancellor and executive leadership from Cal State Fullerton.
These sessions provided a great opportunity to discuss the transportation issues that Orange County is facing, and the conversation focused on the fast, frequent delivery of projects that make sense for the communities in which they are located. CEO Johnson provided an update on the savings OCTA is achieving by using the design-build process for the I-405 Improvement Project.
California is moving to harness a once-in-a-generation investment under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The roundtables are part of the Newsom Administration’s effort to engage with local leaders to identify priority projects and maximize access to federal funding across all regions of the state.