Tuolumne County Requests Road Repair Bill

Sacramento, CA — That bill passed a senate committee on Tuesday.

Republican Assembly member Kristin Olsen helped author bill AB 890. She says she introduced it at the request of Tuolumne County. Olsen says in recent years, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)held up many public works projects. She says the bill will create a statutory exemption from CEQA for roadway safety improvements as long as the project is on an existing road and doesn’t cross a waterway or increase the capacity of the road.

Olsen says it will save cities and counties hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, and help them avoid time delays, when pursuing minor safety improvements like adding guardrails on steep rural roads.

Oslen says “I’m grateful that committee members were able to work across the aisle in order to balance environmental concerns with government’s most basic duty of protecting lives.”

The bill now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.