Wilson OKs Speedier Work on Some Bridges

Under fire for his Administration’s pace in safeguarding California’s vulnerable freeway bridges from earthquakes, Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday authorized the use of emergency powers to speed the work on some spans within Los Angeles County.

“Am I satisfied? I’m never satisfied,” the governor told a news conference in Downtown Los Angeles. “I would like to see the work completed.”

Transit officials said in interviews that the new authority will make it easier to hire outside engineers to help retrofit about 50 spans damaged by the Northridge earthquake. This amounts to about 8% of the 600 unrepaired bridges within the county that have been identified as vulnerable.

“It’s a start,” said James E. Roberts, chief bridge engineer for the California Department of Transportation. “We’ll be able to reconstruct and retrofit these bridges simultaneously. . . . We hope to get more from him later.”

Roberts had told The Times this month that he wanted emergency authority to retrofit all bridges statewide that have been identified as vulnerable to collapse during an earthquake. His boss, Caltrans Director James W. van Loben Sels, has said that such authority was not necessary.

Without Wilson’s action, officials said, retrofitting the structures with jackets of steel reinforcements would not be completed as quickly as the rebuilding or refurbishing of bridges.

“I would like to extend it to the rest of the state,” Wilson said at the news conference, a few hours before signing an executive order to speed the work. But the governor said there is uncertainty whether the procedures can be expanded to regions not directly affected by the earthquake.

Wilson’s comments came in response to a Times article this week reporting that 80% of the 1,313 bridges statewide identified as being vulnerable to earthquakes have not been fixed. In Los Angeles County, only four of the 10 most dangerous structures identified by Caltrans have been retrofitted.

With less than nine months until the November election, the safety of the state’s bridge inventory has emerged as a campaign issue among Wilson’s political opponents. They have accused the governor of slowing the program, in part by refusing to support a tax increase that would pay for expedited work.

On Thursday, the Republican governor criticized his three major Democratic challengers. “Unlike those who have been so critical . . . who cannot wait to increase taxes, I recognize that the people of this state are already highly taxed, that they have been through a recession . . . and that they are experiencing, in this area, all the impact of that quake,” Wilson said.

The governor said he sees no reason to temporarily raise any state tax to pay for the work on an accelerated basis. The governor instead is supporting placing a bond issue on the June ballot that would raise about $1 billion. He also said that he would support diverting money from other highway projects to pay for retrofitting the remaining 1,056 bridges.

Wilson said he believes that “all of the high-risk bridges have been retrofitted.” However, records show that many of the most seismically vulnerable bridges have not been safeguarded. Of the 716 bridges designated for retrofitting in Los Angeles County, design engineering work has not begun on 293 spans. None of the state’s toll bridges has been retrofitted.

The governor attributed the slow pace of retrofitting bridges that have clusters of columns, known as “multiples,” to the need for extensive laboratory research.

Critics, including state Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Quentin L. Kopp, (I-San Francisco), say there is not enough money to retrofit all bridges and that a temporary tax increase is imperative.

“The governor, sooner or later, has to tell the people of California the truth: We need the money for retrofitting and we need that money dedicated exclusively for retrofitting,” Kopp said Thursday.

The governor also said he is urging the state Legislature and President Clinton to defer penalties for quake-disrupted individuals and businesses who may have difficulty filing timely income tax returns.

Meanwhile, the union that represents 7,000 Caltrans engineers and architects said Wilson and the Legislature are responsible for delays in the retrofit program. “It’s a matter of priorities,” said Bruce Blanning, executive assistant for Professional Engineers in California Government. “The speed of that program has been determined by political decisions.”

Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this report.