Caltrans Names New Chief for Local District : Transportation: Brent Felker, who is overseeing the Santa Ana Freeway widening, will assume the post of director Monday.

A 33-year-old project manager overseeing the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway has been named to head Caltrans’ Orange County District, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Brent Felker, now serving as deputy district director for construction in the county, will assume the post Monday, California Department of Transportation officials said.

“As the new district director I will continue the improvements needed to develop a multi-modal system here in Orange County,” Felker said, including high-occupancy freeway lanes, rail lines and express bus systems.

Felker has spent much of his time in recent years overseeing the widening of the freeway through Santa Ana and Irvine, plans for new on- and off-ramps for Disneyland in Anaheim and the redesigning of the El Toro “Y.”

“Transportation officials in Orange County and throughout the state are going to continue to focus on making improvements,” he said.

Felker said he had just completed a preliminary survey of possible earthquake damage to the county’s freeway construction, bridges, overpasses and underpasses. He said he had identified no damage in the county on the state highway system.

In an earlier interview, Felker said that the freeway construction now going on in the county “is essentially unique to the state. . . . It’s like conducting open-heart surgery while keeping the patient walking or running. . . . Our drive is to keep people moving.”

He said that construction on the Santa Ana Freeway has not scared drivers off the route, as sometimes happens during major traffic accidents or other tie-ups. During the construction, he said, traffic on the freeway has remained constant--about 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles daily.