Caltrans District 3 - Division of Planning, Local Assistance, and Sustainability (DPLAS)
The Division of Planning, Local Assistance, and Sustainability (DPLAS) is an interdisciplinary team of transportation planners, engineers, and support staff work cooperatively together to meet California's transportation needs while being sensitive to the needs of our communities and partners in the planning process.
- Sukhvinder (Sue) Takhar is the Deputy District Director of DPLAS.
- Alex Fong is the Assistant Division Chief of DPLAS.
Advance Planning
Advance Planning develops Project Initiation Documents (PIDs) and provides quality assurance review of PIDs developed by local agencies for projects on the State Highway System (SHS) in the 11 counties covered by District 3. PIDs are required to be developed and approved by Caltrans before any major or high complexity project can be programmed and constructed on the SHS. Projects requiring a PID must be identified in a Regional Transportation Planning Agency or Caltrans plan, such as a Regional Transportation Plan or 10-Year SHOPP Plan. For additional information follow this link for the Advance Planning page.
- Bruno Costa | Branch Chief
Modeling and Forecasting
The primary function of the Forecasting and Modeling team is to provide transportation insights on freight, goods, people movements and new mobility deployment metrics; Travel Demand Modeling and Forecasting support services for Traffic Operations, Environmental and Design staff to provide Existing, and future travel forecast, Traffic Indices and Design Designations (TI/DD's); benefit cost analysis for Federal and State grant applications and post project performance evaluations; and analyze VMT/traffic impacts from local developments to the State Highway System as part of Local Development Review process. For staff contact information please visit this Modeling and Forecasting link.
- Sathish Prakash | Branch Chief
Regional Planning
The Regional Planning Branches are responsible for grant management, oversight, policy implementation, and local develop intergovernmental review (LD-IGR). To learn more about each branch, click here. For more information and specialist activities, see below.
- Shannon Culbertson | PID Resource Manager
- Gary Arnold | Sustainability Coordinator
- David Smith | District Freight and Transit Coordinator
- Benjamin Garcia | Complete Streets Coordinator and Park and Ride Coordinator
- Angelina Healy | District Native American Liaison
- Veronica Lavalle | Title VI
Local Assistance
The Office of Local Assistance oversees the authorization, allocation, and reimbursement of federal and state funds made available to the cities, counties, and regional agencies in District 3 for their transportation projects. Follow this link for additional information about the Local Assistance team.
Local Development Review, Equity and System Planning
Local Development Review Coordinators serve as the primary point of contact with the District for all Local Development Review program activities. For more information on System Planning and our Corridor Planning activities, please visit the LDRE&S Website.
Sustainability Program
The goal of the District 3 Sustainability Program is to align our activities with the Caltrans Strategic Plan 2020 - 2024 and its commitment to meet our present generation’s needs without compromising the future generation’s ability to meet its own needs. For more information please visit the Sustainability Program Website.