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CalSTA secretary Toks Omishakin urges tech, low‑carbon materials and community partnerships
Summary
On the Infra Talk America podcast, California State Transportation Agency Secretary Toks Omishakin outlined a ‘core four’ agenda—safety, climate action, equity and economic prosperity—and urged wider use of digital construction tools, integrated transit payments and low‑carbon materials.
Toks Omishakin, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, told Infra Talk America that California is pursuing a four‑part agenda centered on safety, climate action, equity and economic prosperity while accelerating technology adoption and material innovations across the state’s transportation system.
"The more we adapt these tools and infuse them into the process for our engineers and construction managers and consultants and contractors, the more we’re able to generate efficiencies and deliver the product to the people, sooner," Omishakin said, describing how digital construction tools can shorten project delivery timelines.
Omishakin and host Greg Neto discussed a range of technology efforts, including digital project delivery and an integrated transit payment effort referred to in the conversation as Cal ITP. Omishakin described Cal ITP as aiming to allow one‑tap, contactless payments across the state’s more than 300 transit agencies and noted that "in 2022 only 5% of the population had access" to comparable systems; he said the program’s goal is to expand access substantially by 2024.
On materials and climate policy, Omishakin said state laws and executive orders have pushed agencies to use lower‑carbon construction inputs where feasible. He pointed to Portland‑limestone cement as an example, saying it could reduce greenhouse‑gas emissions "as much as 10%" annually in California if widely adopted. He also said existing federal and state funding streams are being targeted to scale low‑carbon materials.
Omishakin described the Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure (CPTI), an initiative he said grew from gubernatorial executive orders and set 34 action items on a multi‑year timeline. "We are 3 years into CPTI," he said, reporting about 25 actions completed and saying the administration expects the remaining nine to be finished imminently and is already working on a second phase.
Throughout the conversation Omishakin emphasized partnerships among state agencies, local governments, academia and private industry. He said federal programs that broaden eligibility for grants—allowing metropolitan planning organizations, cities and private partners to apply—are helping to "gel" collaboration across sectors.
Neto and Omishakin also discussed workforce and institutional capacity. Omishakin noted the contrast between his earlier work at Tennessee DOT (he cited roughly 4,000 staff and a $2,000,000,000 budget) and Caltrans ("22,000 people and a $17,500,000,000 budget"), saying scale changes how projects are managed but not the nature of the problems.
Looking ahead, Omishakin framed the agency’s work as both technical and people‑centered: measure materials and performance, train practitioners on new products, and involve communities in decisions so practices deliver climate and equity outcomes alongside infrastructure improvements.
