California's Local Assistance Program

The United States transportation infrastructure is a complex modal network that includes over 4 million miles of roadway, 140,000 miles of railway, and 25,000 miles of inland waterways. Since 1982, the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) has been working behind the scenes to support the agencies responsible for the operation, maintenance, and performance of America’s local roads and highways. Funded through partnerships between the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state departments of transportation (DOTs), this national program assists local, rural, and tribal transportation agencies by offering low-to-no-cost access to high-demand workforce training, technical assistance, and other knowledge transfer services. With over 51 centers across the U.S. and Puerto Rico forming a state-based regional network, LTAP has established a comprehensive national framework of local public agency (LPA) support.

In California, the audience for LTAP services consists of the State’s 600+ LPAs, which includes 58 counties (482 municipalities) comprised of cities, regional transportation planning agencies (RTPAs), metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), towns, special districts, and tribal communities. California's Department of Transportation (Caltrans) organizes all of these LPAs geographically into 12 "Districts" that cover the State's three regions: north, south, and central. 

To support California's immense transportation workforce, LTAP services are delivered through a collective of university-based partners that are managed by the Caltrans Division of Local Assistance (DLA). These partners include the training facilities of UC Berkeley's Tech Transfer Center and Cal State Sacramento’s Cooperative Training Assistance Program (CTAP), and the administrative LTAP Center located at the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Center for International Trade & Transportation (CITT).