(a) To the extent feasible and cost effective, the department and a local agency that has jurisdiction over a street or highway shall use advanced technologies and material recycling techniques that reduce the cost of maintaining and rehabilitating streets and highways and that exhibit reduced levels of greenhouse gas emissions through material choice and construction method.

(b) Beginning January 1, 2024, a local agency that has jurisdiction over a street or highway shall, to the extent feasible and cost effective, apply standard specifications that allow for the use of recycled materials in streets and highways.

(c) Beginning January 1, 2024, and until January 1, 2027, the standard specifications described in subdivision (b) shall allow recycled materials at or above the level allowed in the department’s standard specifications that went into effect on October 22, 2018, for all of the following:

(1) Recycled base and subbase materials as set forth in Sections 25-1.02 and 26-1.02 of the department’s standard specifications.

(2) Reclaimed asphalt pavement and other materials in asphalt as set forth in Section 39-2.02B of the department’s standard specifications.

(3) Reclaimed aggregate, fly ash, returned plastic concrete, and other materials in concrete as set forth in Sections 90-1.02, 90-2.02, and 90-9 of the department’s standard specifications.

(d) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Department” means the Department of Transportation.

(2) “Local agency that has jurisdiction over a street or highway” does not include any special district, any city whose population, according to the most recent census, is equal to or less than 25,000 people, or any county whose population, according to the most recent census, is equal to or less than 100,000 people.

(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 872, Sec. 1. (AB 2953) Effective January 1, 2023.)