Gambling With Lives : Delay in quake retrofitting for freeways is intolerable

The images of twisted metal, boulder-size chunks of concrete and buckled freeway decks after the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake should stand as vivid reminders to all Californians that delays in the state’s highway earthquake-retrofitting program cannot be tolerated. Not when the potential still exists for severe damage to billions of dollars of public infrastructure; not when public safety could be compromised.

So even though a Sacramento Superior Court judge on Tuesday ruled unconstitutional a new state law giving the California Department of Transportation the authority to hire private-sector consultants and engineers for highway design projects--including retrofitting projects--Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature must not be deterred. They must find a way to ensure that efforts to strengthen bridges and overpasses continue, uninterrupted.

Wilson says the ruling could “seriously hinder” finalizing at least $60 million in contracts devoted to seismic retrofitting. However, some state officials privately are pleased with the opportunity to appeal the ruling by Judge Eugene T. Gualco. Gualco, who has presided over the long-running court battle pitting Caltrans against the union representing its engineers, has infuriated state officials with a number of court orders limiting the state’s power to employ private contractors. Some of his decisions have been responsible for delays in freeway retrofitting.

Given the findings of a special report published in The Times last February, California cannot stand any more foot-dragging. About 80% of the 1,300 most vulnerable freeway bridges and overpasses, it was found, had not been repaired since the state embarked on an ambitious freeway retrofitting program after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Caltrans must find a way to keep the program going. If it doesn’t, then the enormous effort and expense of rebuilding the Los Angeles-area freeways damaged Jan. 17 may merely foreshadow even greater problems. Complacency cannot be afforded in a state where earthquakes are inevitable.