Caltrans prepared to pay volunteers to clean up roadways

Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press
·2 min read
Laboratory airmen from Edwards Air Force Base pick up trash on Highway 58 as part of Caltrans' Adopt-A-Highway program, which will now pay individuals and groups to clean up.
Laboratory airmen from Edwards Air Force Base pick up trash on Highway 58 as part of Caltrans' Adopt-A-Highway program, which will now pay individuals and groups to clean up.

With a new infusion of state funds, Caltrans is expanding its Adopt-A-Highway program and looking to pay volunteers to clean up state highways.

Caltrans’s Clean California incentive program expansion statewide will pay groups and individuals $250 per month for cleanup duties.

The expansion comes after a successful pilot in the Sacramento and San Diego regions that added 230 new highway adoptions in just three months, Caltrans officials said.

“Clean California is all about restoring pride in public spaces and making a difference in our communities,” said Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin in a written statement. “This incentive is designed to encourage and reward people for volunteering to pick up highway litter and beautify California’s roadways.”

Part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California Comeback Plan, Clean California is a sweeping $1.1 billion multiyear effort to remove the trash, create thousands of jobs and engage communities to transform roadsides into places of public pride.

Since July 2021, Caltrans has collected more than 5,600 tons of litter — enough to fill 103 Olympic-size swimming pools — and made more than 500 new hires and another 290 conditional job offers.

Newsom’s California Blueprint proposes $100 million to expand the Clean California Local Grant Program into 2023-24, which provides grants to cities, counties, transit agencies, tribal governments, and other government agencies to beautify their communities and remove trash and debris.

Adopt-a-Highway volunteers help create cleaner and more beautiful roadsides by removing litter, planting trees and flowers, clearing graffiti, thinning overgrown vegetation, and helping prevent litter and other pollutants from entering state waterways through stormwater drains.

Clean up activities include:

  • $250 for clearing litter on both sides of a highway

  • $62.50 for each ramp, or $250 for all four ramps

  • Up to $250 for cleanup activities at other locations, such as bike paths or park-and-ride facilities.

Caltrans will require volunteers to submit information after an eligible cleanup activity, including date, location, amount of trash collected, number of volunteers participating, hours worked, and pictures.

Adopt-A-Highway participants are limited to one payment a month, and there is no cost to participate in the program.

As part of the program, Caltrans installs signs displaying the person's name, family, organization, or business on all segments of the adopted highways.

Volunteers interested in participating in the Adopt-A-Highway Program can call 866-ADOPTAHWY (866-236-7824) or visit CleanCA.com for more information.

Since its inception in 1989, more than 120,000 Californians have cleaned and enhanced more than 15,000 shoulder miles of roadside.

The incentives augment the overall goals of the Clean California program by providing additional resources to maintain and beautify the state's roadways.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Instagram @RenegadeReporter and Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Caltrans prepared to pay volunteers to clean up roadways