Countywide : Caltrans District 12 Director to Retire

When Russell O. Lightcap joined the California Department of Transportation 45 years ago, Earl Warren was governor, Harry S. Truman was president and Bill Clinton was a toddler.

Now after more than four decades, the last three years as director of Caltrans’ District 12 office in Orange County, the 67-year-old engineer from Illinois is retiring.

Caltrans spokesman Albert Miranda said Monday that Lightcap told his staff on Friday of his decision to retire as of Dec. 31.

No successor has been named. Caltrans officials said a formal interview process would be conducted to find Lightcap’s replacement, with the participation of a representative from the Orange County Transportation Authority.

OCTA Chief Executive Officer Stan Oftelie praised the senior Caltrans engineer Monday for his insider’s knowledge of transportation politics in Sacramento, where Lightcap has been adept at cutting through red tape to help Orange County’s transportation projects obtain funding and added staffing.

Lightcap was in Sacramento on Monday and missed the meeting of the OCTA board, where he sits as a non-voting, ex-officio member.

One of Lightcap’s first major jobs for Caltrans in the early 1950s was to replace a bridge across the Trinity River in Northern California that had been washed away.

By the time he came to Orange County three years ago, he had risen through the ranks to head a branch that oversees funding for all of the state’s major highway projects, useful preparation for dealing with the start of the county’s $3-billion Measure M traffic improvement program.

Measure M is the half-cent sales tax for transportation projects approved by Orange County voters in 1990, just after Lightcap arrived. Although administered by OCTA, much of the money funds freeway improvements under Caltrans’ control, including the massive, $1.6-billion Santa Ana Freeway widening effort.

During Lightcap’s tenure here, he has overseen development of plans to redesign and rebuild the heavily congested junction of the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways, known as the El Toro “Y,” the installation of car-pool lanes on the Orange Freeway, and the start of construction on privately owned and operated toll lanes in the median of the Riverside Freeway.

Also under his purview were design and construction inspections on publicly owned toll roads being built by the county’s Transportation Corridor Agencies, which by law must meet Caltrans specifications.