Rebuild the San Diego Region

RSCP is fighting for projects to protect San Diego’s clean water future, improve our local transportation system, and create good union jobs that support working families.

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The Rebuild SoCal Partnership (RSCP) consists of more than 2,700 contractors throughout Southern California that represent more than 90,000 union workers in all 12 Southern California counties. The Partnership is dedicated to working with elected officials and educating the public in Southern California on the continued need for infrastructure funding and enhancing the region’s workforce development while creating career construction jobs. We are dedicated to advocating for clean water, safe bridges, roads, and transit, which are vital to Southern California’s economy.

What are we talking about on the Rebuild SoCal Podcast? San Diego Project Opportunities.

California must take a thoughtful, varied approach to infrastructure. Rebuild SoCal supports projects that will deliver cleaner water, safer roads, and faster commutes while increasing jobs and injecting capital into local economies.

San Diego Project Spotlight

The State Route 11 (SR 11)/Otay Mesa East Port of Entry Project (OME POE) is a joint venture between the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and Caltrans, in collaboration with state and federal partners in the U.S. and Mexico, to create a 21st century border crossing for the San Diego-Baja California region that will enhance regional mobility and fuel economic growth and binational trade. The new port of entry will be clean, green, and smart. Reducing vehicle wait times and building in smart technologies will help reduce emissions and improve air quality in the border region. This project is funded by tolls on the new SR-11, and construction is expected to break ground in early 2023. The project will be the first large infrastructure project that will adhere to the San Diego Association of Governments recently approved Community Benefits Agreement.

The San Diego region’s segment of the LOSSAN corridor extends 60 miles from the San Diego County and Orange County border to the Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego. This critical rail corridor is the economic lifeline for the region, moving nearly eight million passengers and $1 billion worth of goods a year. It also plays a vital role in our nation’s defense by providing direct rail access to several key military bases. During the next 20 years, SANDAG plans to construct nearly $1 billion in improvements in the San Diego segment, including primary efforts to double track the corridor from Orange County to Downtown San Diego, stabilize the rail segment along the coastal Del Mar Bluffs, and relocate the rail corridor off the eroding bluffs. The State of California recently provided $300 million in the state budget to jumpstart this relocation through the environmental and design phase—a huge step forward for a critically-important regional project.

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) has invested significant resources into finally connecting the San Diego International Airport to the public transit and rail system in San Diego. The SANDAG board recently approved a robust constructability and feasibility study that will bring a number of options to finally accomplish this goal and bring the project into a design phase. The board is expected to move into the EIR phase of the project in 2023 and move forward with the construction of this generational project in 2024. This multi-billion dollar project will reduce traffic, provide equitable access to the airport, and remake the urban core of San Diego

In November 2021, the Airport Authority began construction on the New T1, which includes the replacement of a new Terminal 1, improvements to the airfield, improved transportation connectivity to the airport, and a new administration building. The New T1 program’s total project budget is $3.4 billion and is estimated to create between 15,000 to 20,000 construction-related jobs.

* (Courtesy of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority)

Currently in construction, the Pure Water Project will use proven water purification technology to clean recycled water to produce safe, high-quality drinking water. The program will provide nearly half of San Diego’s water supply locally by the end of 2035 and is the largest Water Recycling project in the nation.

Phase 1 of the Pure Water Program includes 11 different projects that will clean recycled water to produce 30 million gallons per day of high-quality purified water, reducing the City’s dependence on imported water. The projects include:

Early Works at the North City Water Reclamation Plant
Morena Pump Station
Morena Pipelines Southern Alignment
Morena Pipelines Middle Alignment
Morena Pipelines Northern Alignment
North City Water Reclamation Plant Expansion

Phase 1 of the project, including the 11 contracts listed above, are currently underway. Phase 2 of the project, in its preliminary stages, is expected to be nearly $3 billion in infrastructure investment.

Dam Safety Investments

Public safety and climate resilience can be enhanced through dedicated state and federal funding for projects such as repairs, reinforcements, seismic upgrades, and new spillways at existing dams.

Several of the San Diego region’s 53 dams have received a Division of Safety of Dams condition assessment that warrants immediate attention.