DATE: June 2, 2026
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Steven E. White, Director
Department of Public Works and Planning
SUBJECT: Fresno County Senate Bill 1 Project List and Anticipated Force Account Projects
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
Approve and authorize the Chairman to sign a Resolution establishing a list of road and bridge projects to be performed with Department of Public Works and Planning’s Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account funds in the amount of $30,594,654 for FY 2026-27.
REPORT
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended action. Approval of the recommended action will authorize the projects to be performed with the Department of Public Works and Planning’s (Department) Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account (RMRA) funding for FY 2026-27. The initial Project List must be submitted by July 1, 2026, to the California Transportation Commission (CTC), but your Board may add, delete or revise the list at any time and as often as necessary, as discussed below. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
If the recommended action is not approved, the County Road Fund 0010 would not receive an estimated $30,594,654 from the RMRA for FY 2026-27 (Exhibit C). Your Board may approve the recommended action in its original form or in modified form and direct the Department to return at a later date to modify the Project List. As long as the initial list is adopted by your Board and submitted to the CTC by July 1, 2026, your Board may direct the Department to return at any time and as often as necessary to modify the Project List by adding, deleting, or revising projects.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended action. The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (Senate Bill 1 or SB 1) (Chapter 5, Statutes of 2017) requires a $212,959 annual maintenance of effort contribution from the General Fund and will be included in the Department of Public Works and Planning - Roads Org 4510 FY 2026-27 Recommended Budget.
For the recommended action, revenues received from RMRA will be deposited in Road Fund 0010, and will be utilized for design, right-of-way acquisition, construction, and construction engineering of the identified road and bridge projects and the anticipated day labor overlay road segment projects.
DISCUSSION:
1. Gas Tax Funding
The State imposes per-gallon excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, sales taxes on diesel fuel, and registration taxes on all motor vehicles, dedicating these revenues to transportation purposes. Portions of the revenues are distributed to cities and counties through the Highway Users Tax Account (HUTA) and RMRA, which was created by SB 1. For FY 2026-27, Fresno County’s HUTA revenues are estimated to total $29,346,149 and RMRA revenues are estimated to be $30,594,654. By statute, the tax percentage increases annually in order to account for the reduction in gas purchases due to increased use of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV). In California the number of “on-road” light-duty ZEV increased from 1,516,107 in 2023 to 1,899,831 in 2024; a 25.31% increase. In 2024 there were 17,965 “on-road” light-duty ZEV in Fresno County with the sale of an additional 3,779 ZEV in 2025. The State’s Road Charge Pilot program is exploring ways to charge drivers for actual vehicle miles driven as an alternative funding mechanism that allows drivers to support road and highway maintenance while more fairly allocating costs to road users. Sanctioned by the California State Senate, the California Department of Transportation conducted a research study from August 2024 through January 2025. Pilot test participants reported road miles driven, paid real money road charges, and completed surveys. The final report is due to the State Legislature by December 2026. At this time, it is unclear whether ZEV technology and the Road Charge Program will eventually lead to a change in the way the Legislature allocates gas tax revenues to cities and counties.
By statute, the County’s share of Excise Gas Tax is calculated using a formula which considers the number of registered vehicles and the number of maintained miles of roadway. The formula assigns greater significance to the number of registered vehicles (in all cities and unincorporated areas of a county) by assigning weighting factors of 75% and 25%, to the number of registered vehicles and to the number of maintained miles, respectively. Although the County maintains approximately 3,461 miles of road which is the largest County Road system in the State, we do not receive the most funding. For example, Orange County, the county with the lowest amount of unincorporated area-maintained miles, at 345 - less than one-tenth of Fresno County, is issued more than twice as much total gas tax revenue due to the number of vehicles registered in Orange County.
2. Needs Identification and Project Selection
SB 1 emphasizes the importance of accountability and transparency in the delivery of California’s transportation programs. Therefore, in order to be eligible for RMRA funding, the statute requires cities and counties to provide basic RMRA project reporting to the CTC.
The SB 1 project list is developed with information from several sources:
• The Department’s Pavement Management System (PMS) - The PMS is a planning tool used to aid pavement management decisions. PMS software programs model future pavement deterioration due to traffic and weather and recommend maintenance and repairs to the road’s pavement based on the type and age of the pavement and various measures of existing pavement quality. The Department provides information from the PMS to respond to the Statewide Local Streets and Roads Needs Assessment, a survey conducted statewide to assess local street and road network conditions. The 2023 Assessment rated the County’s roads as “at risk” along with 46 other counties. Eight counties are rated in poor condition, while three (the aforementioned Orange County, San Bernardino, and San Diego) are rated in good condition. No counties were rated as excellent.
• Bridge Inspection Reports - Each bridge in the State carrying a public highway that has a minimum span greater than 20 feet is inspected by the State. Whenever a bridge is inspected, a bridge inspection report is created that discusses the health of the bridge including work recommendations and replacement eligibility.
• Public Outreach - The Department conducts public outreach through the General Plan, the Active Transportation Plan, and the Regional Transportation Plan updates, as well as various community meetings in the unincorporated areas to obtain residents’ input into needs for road and pedestrian facilities.
3. Senate Bill (SB) 1 / RMRA Project List
The RMRA funds are proposed to be spent on several projects, which will be funded exclusively by RMRA, and to provide matching funds for federally-funded projects. In order to ensure that the projects can utilize all of the available funding, the estimated cost to construct all of the projects on the list exceeds the available RMRA funding. Certain overlay locations will be included in the contract(s) as additive alternate bids, which can either be awarded with or omitted from the construction contract(s) depending upon the bids received and available funding.
Streets and Highway Code (SHC) section 2034(a)(1) provides that the project list does not limit the flexibility of an eligible city or county to fund projects in accordance with local needs and priorities so long as the projects are consistent with RMRA priorities as outlined in SHC section 2030(b). Consequently, the list does not necessarily reflect all of the projects that will ultimately utilize RMRA funding.
While it is critical that a Project List be adopted by your Board and submitted to the CTC by July 1, 2026, to secure RMRA funding for FY 2026-27, your Board may direct the Department to return at any time and as often as necessary to modify the list by adding, deleting, or revising projects. California State Association of Counties’ revenue projections published in January 2026 anticipate that the County will receive $30,594,654 in FY 2026-27. This amount reflects a modest increase from the previous fiscal year’s revenue projection of $29,276,170, despite a continued decline in fuel consumption.
On June 10, 2025, a list of projects to be performed using RMRA funding in FY 2025-26 was adopted by your Board. Projects included on that list that have not yet been completed are considered “carryover projects” and are attached as Exhibit B and referenced in the proposed resolution. If funding is not adequate to cover all projects in FY 2026-27, or if completion is still pending at the end of the fiscal year, they will be carried over as projects to be constructed using RMRA funding in FY 2027-28 and future allocations, as necessary.
As shown on Exhibits A and B, not all of the listed projects will be constructed during FY 2026-27. In some cases, the funding is used only to cover the local match for federally funded projects, or only certain phases of the projects. Some projects may not ultimately be constructed, and they may be deferred or deleted from the list at a later date.
OTHER REVIEWING AGENCIES:
The resolution will be submitted to the CTC by July 1, 2026.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #59, June 10, 2025
BAI #6, June 18, 2024
BAI #80, June 20, 2023
BAI #39, August 23, 2022
BAI #11, May 17, 2022
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Exhibit A - RMRA SB-1 New Project List FY 2026-27
Exhibit B - RMRA SB-1 Carried Over Project List
Exhibit C - HUTA-RMRA Revenue Estimate FY 2026-27
On file with Clerk - SB-1 Resolution with Exhibits A and B
CAO ANALYST:
Maria Valencia