Caltrans Project Quality Control Under Scrutiny

A state Assembly inquiry into faulty welds on Orange Crush interchange bridges will begin within a month and will focus on how well Caltrans monitors the quality of construction on its projects, lawmakers said Tuesday.

“We want to figure out what happened,” said Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim), a member of the transportation committee that is launching the probe. “And more importantly, we want to make sure that this type of thing never happens again.”

Correa said he also wants to set up formal public hearings into the matter.

The committee’s investigation was sparked by a Times report that one in every eight welds sampled from Orange Crush bridges failed stress tests earlier this year.

Caltrans tested 56 welds from two bridge columns at the crossroads of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange freeways. Seven welds broke below their design strength, and Caltrans says it will begin replacing the welds in December--a job that is expected to cost at least $4 million and last about a year.

The bridges were designed to withstand a 6.5-magnitude earthquake. The 1994 Northridge quake was 6.7.

“I don’t want the Orange Crush to come down like the Santa Monica Freeway did during the Northridge earthquake,” Correa said.

There is little danger the Orange Crush bridges would pancake, Caltrans says. Instead, the agency has described its planned $4 million in repairs to the Orange Crush as “an insurance policy.”

Caltrans welcomes the legislative review, spokesman Jim Drago said Tuesday.

“We actually look forward to the opportunity of working with them and telling them what changes we have made to the process,” Drago said. “The Legislature and Caltrans share the same goal, which is to protect public safety.”

One question topping lawmakers’ list is whether Caltrans adequately increased its oversight of construction projects after finding hundreds of faulty welds in a San Diego interchange in 1995. That discovery led to a three-year statewide review of more than 1,100 bridges, including those at the Orange Crush.

Two years ago, lawmakers approved a measure that would have required Caltrans inspectors to monitor construction projects, unless responsibility for quality control was assigned to the general contractor.

Then-Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed the bill, saying it would “impose unnecessary and potentially onerous requirements” on Caltrans.

“Existing laws, regulations, and practices more than adequately ensure that the department’s construction work meets standards and specifications,” Wilson wrote in his October 1997 veto message.

But in light of the Orange Crush weld problems, several lawmakers said this week that the 1997 measure should have been signed into law.

“The question is: Is there adequate quality control? Unfortunately, apparently not,” said Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), chairman of the Assembly transportation committee. “I’m upset this kind of money was spent on the project and now we have to go back and fix it.”

Torlakson and other lawmakers have not settled on a date, location or format for their weld inquiry. They want to know more about the scope, cost and schedule for the Orange Crush repairs, as well as an inventory of all bridges scrutinized during Caltrans’ statewide review.

Lawmakers also plan to interview key Caltrans engineers as well as contractors who worked on the Orange Crush interchange.

“We want to make sure our freeways are safe,” Correa said.