Caltrans Called Too ‘Optimistic’--and 35% Behind Schedule

More than 35% of all state highway projects have failed to meet planned delivery dates this year, partly because of “overly optimistic scheduling” by the California Department of Transportation, a state report revealed Wednesday.

More than 50% of Caltrans’ projects in Orange County have fallen behind schedule during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, county transportation officials estimated. The report did not list separate figures for Orange County.

Prepared by state Transportation Commission Executive Director Robert E. Nielsen, the report said 48.7% of the highway projects in the San Francisco Bay Area have had to be rescheduled this fiscal year, the worst project delivery performance in the state.

About 45.5% of the state highway projects in the Los Angeles-Ventura-Orange County Caltrans district have also been rescheduled.

As a result, CTC members are expected to vote today to seek more meetings with Deukmejian Administration officials, with a goal of drafting a plan within 30 days for correcting the problem.

Talks With Geoghegan

Discussions with state Business, Transportation and Housing Secretary John K. Geoghegan and Caltrans Director Leo J. Trombatore have already been held and will continue during the next few weeks, said commission member William Leonard of San Bernardino, chairman of the subcommittee looking into the delays.

Leonard said the result will probably be more contracting by Caltrans with county governments, and eventually private companies, for project management and other services now performed mostly by Caltrans.

However, Leonard said the commission probably would vote today to continue Caltrans’ controversial policy of optimistic scheduling, which, he said, is used to motivate Caltrans’ workers and ensure that projects are already in place and can take advantage of federal funds that often become available without much advance notice.

“It helps promote productivity,” Leonard said of the scheduling policy.

Commission members could make a specific legal finding that Caltrans has failed to perform adequately, but Leonard predicted that the commission will not take such a “confrontational” approach. Such a finding can be used by the commission later to transfer authority over specific highway projects from Caltrans to other agencies, including county governments.

Commissioner Bruce Nestande of Orange County, who missed Wednesday’s session because his wife was expecting a baby, said he favors finding Caltrans in default.

Coordination Problems

Caltrans has objected to such action for too long, he said, because it does not want anyone meddling in the agency’s “internal operations.”

Caltrans officials have said delays grow out of problems in coordinating locally funded projects--such as the widening of Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach--with local officials, environmental roadblocks such as Coastal Commission objections to a planned straightening of Laguna Canyon Road and federal requests for project information before release of federal highway money.

Orange County officials, angry about recently announced delays in widening the Santa Ana Freeway and other Caltrans projects, said Wednesday that the state report supports their argument that Caltrans has not given top priority to big-ticket items, such as the Santa Ana Freeway, over smaller projects.

“The delays in the Santa Ana Freeway project alone will cost an additional $10 million to $12 million due to inflation,” said Stanley T. Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Commission.

“Multiply that throughout the state, and you come up with rather startling sums of money. We aren’t complaining about problems that are outside Caltrans’ control. But the items that are within its control are causing significant consternation.”

Oftelie cited as an example the planned widening of the San Diego Freeway from Seal Beach to Irvine, with the addition of car-pool lanes. He said the project was delayed six months simply because Caltrans did not prepare contract documents on time.

He said, “That’s simply a paper-moving problem.”