It is very good to see public agencies partner with private to solve public problems and do it effectively and efficiently.
Fix shows a can-do Caltrans
Quick action in Oakland collapse puts the jokes to rest
By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, May 12, 2007
Down on the bayside flats of Oakland this week, two major rebuilding efforts got under way in earnest.
Amid jackhammers, tractors and torches, crews are pushing the pace to fix a section of freeway destroyed when a gasoline tanker truck overturned and exploded.
In doing so, they also are repairing the image of one of California's most maligned agencies.
For years, the state Department of Transportation has been an easy target for jokes, such as "What's orange and sleeps four? A Caltrans truck."
A new governor and new Caltrans director, however, have promised a more nimble, creative agency. Director Will Kempton -- a career transportation executive chosen by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger two years ago to head the massive department -- has been telling anyone who will listen: This is no longer "your father's Caltrans."
Now, a freeway catastrophe is helping him make the case.
Caltrans is responsible for safety and maintenance along 50,000 highway lane miles in California. The agency, with an $11 billion budget, does everything from fixing potholes and clearing snow from mountain roads, to building freeways.
The transportation agency impressed many last week by announcing June 27 as the target for the reopening of the Interstate 580 connector, a two-lane skyway east of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge that carries tens of thousands of vehicles daily.
That would be just two months after the 175-foot section was destroyed.
The alacrity of Caltrans' work on the connector stands in contrast to a major ongoing project just a few hundred yards away on the Bay Bridge, where Caltrans did its reputation no good by busting the budget and struggling for years to build a new, seismically safer east span.
Kempton contends those problem days on the Bay Bridge span are over, thanks to a successful budget compromise two years ago.
The agency, he said, is managing that project more efficiently. It's one of the lessons from past projects and emergencies that helped shape its response to the April 29 freeway collapse.
Caltrans called demolition teams to the scene within hours of the early Sunday-morning crash. Within three days, tons of broken concrete and crumpled steel had been removed. Engineers had drawn up repair designs by midweek, and Caltrans officials, dialing nationwide, had found enough steel.
By day four, crews were fixing the moderately damaged lower connector, connecting Interstates 80 and 880. It reopened this week, although crews continue to bolster its underbelly.
Taking advantage of the governor's emergency declaration, Caltrans opened and closed an invitation-only bidding process for reconstruction of the upper connector in just four days.
Caltrans is offering $200,000 for each day the connector reopens prior to June 27, and a $200,000 penalty for each day the project is late.
The winning bidder, C.C. Myers of Rancho Cordova, said he is aiming to have the connector ready by the beginning of June, allowing him to earn the maximum $5 million.
