The State of California, Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of the California State Highway System, as well as that portion of the Interstate Highway System within the state's boundaries. Alone and in partnership with Amtrak, Caltrans is also involved in the support of intercity passenger rail service in California, and is a leader in promoting the use of alternative modes of transportation. The current framework of Caltrans was set down by Assembly Bill 69 in 1972.

NEES, the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, is a National Science Foundation sponsored consortium of 15 experimental facilities working toward engineering solutions to minimize damage to structures and loss of life from earthquakes. NEES revolutionizes earthquake engineering research by the creation of a national network of experimental facilities with shared collaborative tools allowing remote participation and observation, a centralized data repository opening the exchange of data and information, and earthquake simulation software linking simulation with experimentation. These resources are part of the cyberinfrastructure linked by ultra-high-speed NEESgrid connections. Together, they provide collaboration and discovery in the form of more advanced research based on experimentation and computational simulations of the ways buildings, bridges, utility systems, coastal regions, and geomaterials perform during seismic events.

The UCLA NEES program has developed a state-of-the-art mobile field laboratory to enable detailed, seismic performance characterization of full-scale structural and foundation systems. Through use of this equipment, it is possible to develop an inventory of field test results that provide significant new insights into the nonlinear response of full-scale structural systems, as well as soil structure interaction effects.