By: Barbara Archer, City of Davis
The City of Davis announced today that through the hard work and commitment of staff and consultants, the City has been awarded (or is an affiliate to) more than $7.5 million in grants since June 2024, on a variety of projects including community resilience, electrical charging, cybersecurity, regional mobility, public safety and more.
“We are always looking for ways to leverage partnerships, funds and resources,” said Mayor Bapu Vaitla. “These grants will help support a broad range of services that will go a long way into reinforcing the City’s commitment towards climate action, fiscal responsibility and public safety.”
The following list provides information on the granting agency, amount and project:
- Railroad Crossing Elimination (RCE) Grant Program: $4.16 million. Provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration, this program provides funding for highway-rail or pathway-rail grade crossing improvement projects that focus on improving the safety and mobility of people and goods. Yolo County is the grant recipient. The funds will be used on County Road 32A for a crossing relocation and grade separation project that the City of Davis will be working on with the County. This project will help to reduce conflicts between both passenger and freight trains and roadway users, improve goods movement reliability, ease traffic congestion and reduce environmental impacts. Yolo County will contribute the 20% non-Federal match. More information: railroads.dot.gov/FY23-24-RCE-Grant-Program-Selections.
- Buses and Bus Facilities Grant Program: $1.6 million. The City of Davis, as passthrough for Unitrans, was notified of funding to construct infrastructure and buy charging equipment to support Unitrans’ battery electric bus fleet. Unitrans operates general public bus service within Davis and to the UC Davis campus, serving most destinations within the Davis community on fixed routes and schedules. The new equipment will allow Unitrans to continue to maintain safe and reliable public transit service to UC Davis students and community members throughout the city. This grant is the last piece of an $8.5 million funding package needed to construct Unitrans’ Phase 2 bus electrification infrastructure project, which when completed in 2026 will provide an additional 16 electric bus charging stations on the north side of the Unitrans Maintenance Facility. More information: www.transit.dot.gov/funding/grants/fy24-fta-bus-and-low-and-no-emission-grant-awards.
- Local Highway Safety Improvement Program (Local HSIP): $548,190. Provided by Caltrans, the purpose of HSIP is to provide a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads, including non-State-owned roads and roads on tribal lands. This grant is split between two projects in Davis: $240,480 (with a 10% match) to add buffered bike lanes to Lake Blvd., from Russell Blvd. to Arlington Road, and $307,710 (with a 10% match) to install rectangular rapid flashing beacons and upgrade high visibility pedestrian crossing markings at three locations in Davis (Cannery loop curve, B Street at 7th Street and F Street at 6th Street). More information: dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/local-assistance/documents/hsip/2025/listoffundedprojects-20241218.pdf.
- Safe Streets and Roads for All Program (SS4A): $520,000. Provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the SS4A program funds regional, local, and Tribal initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries. This award will be used by City of Davis to conduct quick-build demonstration projects and pilot the use of camera technology to track traffic volumes and near misses at intersections and crossings along Russell Boulevard to inform the subsequent design and construction of permanent infrastructure improvements along this road. Over 24,000 UC Davis affiliates walk, bike or ride transit for their daily commute to and from campus, the majority of whom cross Russell Boulevard between campus and the City. As a result, the busiest intersections along Russell Boulevard each serve upwards of 800 bicyclists, 300 pedestrians, 40 buses and 2,500 cars during weekday peak hours. This information along with other contextual factors these contextual factors create a dynamic and complex multi-modal operating environment typified by crowded active transportation facilities and crossings, frequent multimodal conflicts at intersections, high speed differentials between modes, and degraded performance and safety for all modes. This grant is subject to changes by the federal government. More information: www.transportation.gov/grants/ss4a/2024-full-award-list.
- Electric Program Investment Charge Program (EPIC): $400,000. The EPIC program is a part of the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) work to invest in research and development to transform the state’s electricity sector.The Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC), a research center with the UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute, in partnership with Yolo County and the City of Davis, will collaboratively work on community-based Virtual Power Plan (VPP) strategies. The WCEC received a $5 million grant from the CEC, of which the City of Davis will receive a total of $400,000 as a sub-recipient, to: install smart thermostat technology to enroll approximately 140 of the City’s HVAC systems in a VPP, develop an economic development strategy to address changes in the State’s electric grid, develop targeted education or program materials and research and analyze City zoning, land use or other local regulatory or implementation barriers, among other tasks. This grant was approved at the February 12 Energy Commission Business meeting. More information: www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/electric-program-investment-charge-epic-program.
- Cal OES State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program: $250,000. The purpose of the grant is to assist agencies in addressing cybersecurity risks and threats to information systems, and improve security of critical infrastructure and resilience of the services these entities provide to their communities. This federal grant program is jointly administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The City obtained the maximum grant award possible and was one of 13 cities to receive this grant out of more than 100 recipients. More information: https://www.caloes.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/Homeland-Security/Documents/FY-2024-SLCGP-Awarded-Entities.pdf.
- PG&E EV Fleet Electrification Program: $100,000. PG&E has offered the City of Davis the ability to participate in its EV Fleet program, which will cover the necessary cost of upgrading transformers and installing infrastructure up to the City’s EV charging electricity meter. PG&E will also reimburse $4,000 per EV vehicle the City purchases as part of the approved project. The reimbursable grant funding is for a total of 25 electric vehicles (EV) for the City’s Fleet over the next five (5) years, equating to $100,000. More information: documents.cityofdavis.org/Media/Default/Documents/PDF/CityCouncil/CouncilMeetings/Agendas/2025/2025-02-18/03C-PGandE-EV-Fleet-Program.pdf.
