Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Swift Freeway Retrofits Urged : Roads: Caltrans’ chief engineer calls for executing fortification plans on an emergency basis. He claims a union dispute has slowed work, but a representative of the workers says the agency is trying to shift blame.

California’s program to fortify freeway bridges and overpasses against major earthquakes should be carried out on an emergency basis, the state’s chief transportation engineer said Tuesday.

“I’ve been through three major earthquakes in my career,” said James E. Roberts, chief engineer for the California Department of Transportation and a 41-year veteran of the agency. “I’d like to get all this finished, frankly.”

Of the 1,033 bridges scheduled for seismic reinforcement, Caltrans has retrofitted more than 250.

Roberts and Caltrans Director James W. van Loben Sels said that a court dispute with a union representing Caltrans employees had to some extent delayed the buttressing of freeway structures. Caltrans, responding last year to a judge’s rulings in the ongoing case, postponed entering any new design-engineering contracts with private firms.

“Any time you have disruption, you lose momentum,” Roberts said. “Let’s face it.”

Caltrans employees filed the lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court, seeking to preserve state jobs.

A representative of the employees union took sharp issue with the assertions of Roberts and Van Loben Sels, accusing the pair of seeking to divert attention from what he called their department’s slow progress in retrofitting freeways.

“They’re trying to cover their fannies,” said Richard T. Baker, executive assistant for the Professional Engineers in California Government. Baker said that the rulings did not prohibit Caltrans from continuing to hire consultants for the retrofitting program.

Van Loben Sels disputed that, saying that there were constraints on outside contracting and that they did have some impact on the seismic work. He said he could not quantify the amount but added: “It’s not a big impact.”

Roberts and Van Loben Sels noted that two bridges that failed along the heavily traveled Santa Monica Freeway had been scheduled to be reinforced, beginning later this month.

Other bridges or overpasses collapsed at the interchange of the Antelope Valley and Golden State freeways near Sylmar, at a site two miles north on Golden State Freeway called Gavin Canyon and on the Simi Valley Freeway, where it crosses San Fernando Mission Boulevard. Except for the Simi Valley Freeway overpass, all of the structures that fell were scheduled to be reinforced.

Roberts, asked about the Simi Valley Freeway collapse, retreated from his earlier statements that Caltrans had not scheduled the overpass for reinforcement partly because the fault that caused the Northridge earthquake was uncharted.

Roberts told a hearing of the Assembly Transportation Committee last week that one of the reasons the Simi Valley overpasses were not placed on the list of structures to be reinforced was because engineers had no knowledge of the fault’s existence.

But Roberts, while noting that Caltech seismologists had said immediately after the Jan. 17 quake that the fault was unknown, acknowledged Tuesday that a 1990 map, prepared for the department’s internal use, appears to show a fault at near the quake’s epicenter.

Nevertheless, Roberts said that the Simi Valley overpass would not have been included on the statewide retrofitting list solely on the basis of seismic risk. Caltrans selected candidates for retrofitting based on numerous factors, including the age and design of the freeway, soil conditions and traffic.

As for completing the $750-million retrofitting program on an emergency basis, Roberts said he would like to see an expansion of the emergency contracting procedures authorized by Gov. Pete Wilson for reconstruction of the bridges destroyed by the earthquake. A contract has been awarded for reconstruction of the I-5 bridge at Gavin Canyon and rebuilding is to begin immediately on Santa Monica Freeway overpasses.

Van Loben Sels said he is not convinced that an expansion of emergency contracting is necessary for the earthquake retrofitting program. Although the expedited process would streamline permitting and competitive bidding, Van Loben Sels said normal procedures are designed to guarantee fairness to competing contractors and protection of public funds.

“I’m not sure whether we need any extraordinary measures from the governor (for earthquake retrofitting) but I can certainly tell you that I’m going to use everything in my power to press forward,” he said.