Caltrans Veteran to Steer the County’s New District

A veteran Caltrans engineer--who rose through the ranks after designing the controversial, never-to-be-built Pacific Coast Freeway through Orange County--was named Tuesday to direct the county’s new Caltrans district office.

Leo J. Trombatore, director of the state Department of Transportation, introduced Keith McKean, 63, during a press conference at Caltrans’ temporary offices on 17th Street in Santa Ana.

McKean, a former Lake Forest resident and veteran of 36 years with Caltrans, had been the agency’s director for the Bishop area in Northern California since 1983.

Previously, he developed plans for the $1.7-billion Century Freeway in Los Angeles, where he also served as chief of a Caltrans environmental unit.

Trombatore called McKean one of Caltrans’ “best managers” and added that the appointment symbolized the agency’s commitment to ease Orange County’s traffic woes.

McKean, who is married and has four children, said he was too new to identify specific projects as his top priority but said the widening of the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways probably were at the top of the list.

“I’m excited,” McKean said. “I can’t believe that this has happened. The reason I went to work for the old division of highways when I got out of the service is that I felt there was a real need for transportation facilities. . . . I had come back from Germany and had seen the autobahn and what it could accomplish. Back in those days, the queues were really long.”

McKean recalled that some of his first assignments for Caltrans in Los Angeles during the 1950s involved Orange County projects, adding that he “fell in love” with the county.

“It kind of saddened me to see the expansion (county growth) without any change in the transportation system, basically.”

McKean defended the ill-fated Pacific Coast Freeway project along the Orange County coast as a “first-class facility.” The project was abandoned 15 years ago because of strong opposition from beach communities along the proposed route.

McKean said his first new task will be to create a 600-person Caltrans staff in Orange County and organize the district’s operations.

Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Commission, noted Tuesday that the 17th Street building where Caltrans is temporarily housed was once occupied by the John Birch Society, which opposed state and federal funding of Orange County highways.

Now, Oftelie said, McKean will preside over a program scheduled to complete $500-million worth of highway projects, funded by the state and federal governments, in Orange County over the next five years.

“The pressures (to deliver projects on time) are going to be intense,” said Oftelie, who added that Caltrans’ temporary offices will be bulldozed next year as part of the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway. Caltrans is looking for permanent facilities in the Santa Ana area, near the Interstate 5 project.

After the press conference, McKean attended a lunch with Orange County officials and civic leaders at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach.

Bowing to pressure from county business and civic leaders, Gov. George Deukmejian created Caltrans’ new District 12 in April.

The local district director’s post had been filled on an interim basis since then by Robert H. Ramey, 43, a veteran of Caltrans who is being transferred to Sacramento. Previously, Orange County was part of the Caltrans district that includes Los Angeles and Ventura counties.