With President Trump pledging $1 trillion for infrastructure projects, California officials have proposed a list of $100 billion in projects for possible federal funding to help rebuild the Golden State’s system of crumbling roads and bridges and improve transit and water storage.

Any federal money for the 51 projects would be in addition to money California is hoping to raise for its aging infrastructure, wrote Nancy McFadden, the governor’s executive secretary.

“In the short-term, these projects will benefit businesses up and down the state and put thousands to work — many in communities with the highest rates of unemployment,” McFadden wrote. “Long-term, this investment will have lasting, expansive economic benefits by moving goods and people faster, protecting vulnerable communities from flooding, bolstering emergency response capabilities, saving and storing more water and improving energy reliability.

The list of priority projects includes roads, levees, bridges, ports, train and public transit systems, water storage and recycling projects, and emergency operations facilities and services.

The state faces a $136-billion backlog of necessary repairs on state highways and local roads, and Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed in his new budget to increase spending on transportation $4.3 billion a year for the next decade.

“To prepare for the future — and complement federal investments — California is doing its part by working on legislation to ensure a permanent and sustainable funding stream is in place to further support road, highway and other critical infrastructure construction and improvements — part of a 10-year transportation investment plan,” McFadden wrote.

Southern California projects on the priority list include:

  • Widen and replace interchanges of the 710 Freeway serving the ports of L.A. and Long Beach
  • Strengthen the Otay Mesa-Mexican border with a new port of entry for efficient crossings
  • Construct 16 miles of express lanes along major commute corridors on the 405 Freeway in Orange County
  • Build express lanes along the 15 Freeway in Riverside County and the 10 Freeway in San Bernardino County
  • Replace the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach
  • Expand and improve the Los Angeles Metro Transit system, to benefit commuters and the 2024 Olympic bid
  • Modernize and replace the Los Angeles Metro rail fleet
  • Expand the ongoing Central Valley high-speed rail construction
  • Construct a Los Angeles Regional Recycled Water project to purify water currently being discharged into the ocean for recharging groundwater basins
  • Build an early-warning earthquake system
  • Construct a Southern California Regional Emergency Operations Center in Los Alamitos

Source: Los Angeles Times