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Thousands of overdue highway and rail transit projects must be completed to alleviate traffic and prepare us for the next quake.

Traffic gridlock is fast becoming an unacceptable way of life in California, and a costly one. The California Department of Transportation reports that traffic congestion costs California consumers almost $8 million every day in wasted time and fuel. Perhaps as frustrating as sitting in traffic is knowing there are literally thousands of planned highway, rail transit and earthquake retrofit projects awaiting completion.

Caltrans and private sector engineers and architects are needed to complete those projects.

Virtually everyone agrees that we need the help of all qualified architects and engineers – both public and private – to complete these projects efficiently. Caltrans cannot handle the workload alone. Even less reassuring, a recent university study reveals that Caltrans spends more on administration than it does fixing our roads and highways.

One big roadblock stands in the way: A group of Caltrans bureaucrats severely restricted government’s ability to contract with the private sector.

Lawsuits filed by a small group of bureaucrats at Caltrans – who want to keep all work IN-house – severely restricted state government’s ability to contract with the private sector for architecture and engineering services and threatened local governments with similar consequences. The bureaucrats forced the termination of 15 earthquake retrofit contracts with private firms and jeopardized the delivery of thousands of other overdue projects.

Prop. 35 is a common sense initiative to fix the problem and allow public-private partnerships to complete projects sooner, safely and at a $2.5 billion taxpayer savings.

Prop. 35 will allow state and local government to select the most qualified architects and engineers – using the same competitive selection process used in most other states – to complete projects more efficiently. An economic study of Prop. 35 shows the increased use of private sector expertise could save California taxpayers $2.5 billion every year and create 40,000 additional private sector jobs.

Prop. 35 will also speed up school improvements and other ailing infrastructure needs.

Prop. 35 doesn’t just impact our transportation needs. Permitting public-private partnerships will also help deliver other overdue public works projects, such as classroom construction, school and hospital earthquake retrofits, flood control and park improvements.

Prop. 35 is sponsored by a broad-based coalition – Taxpayers for Fair Competition.

The coalition includes more than a dozen taxpayer groups and hundreds of schools, local governments, business and labor, engineers, earthquake safety experts, seniors and frustrated commuters.