A Bridge Too Low, Far Too Often

Thousands of bridges throughout the state are too low to handle oversized trucks, and Caltrans has no plans to raise them, despite an unprecedented boom in truck traffic and the revelation last week that the agency’s misrouting of trucks resulted in at least 24 accidents during the last 3 1/2 years alone.

In Orange County, about one in every five bridges is lower than the 16 1/2-foot height that became standard in the state in 1968. On the Riverside Freeway, where a Westminster man was crushed to death last month by a 7,000-pound fuel tank knocked off a big rig by an overpass, 13 bridges don’t meet current standards.

About 45% of Los Angeles County’s 1,060 overpasses are lower than current standards, with oversized loads routed around several freeways that have bridges too low to bypass. For example, the Santa Monica Freeway has dozens of overpasses under 16 1/2 feet. The vast majority of state bridges were built more than 25 years ago, long before the sight of a semi carrying a manufactured home became common. Now California, with a state economy larger than most countries’ and with the most truck traffic in the nation, has many roads that are ill-equipped to handle the changing reality of truck traffic.

An examination of Caltrans bridge logs shows that the thousands of low-lying bridges have created an obstacle course for oversized trucks, with many instances of accidents or close calls throughout the state.

With no plan in the works to retrofit the bridges, Caltrans officials say they will continue to rely on their truck permitting offices to direct the estimated 200,000 oversized rigs expected to travel California’s roads this year. About half of those permits will be issued to trucks taller than the 14-foot-high legal limit for travel without them, about 12,000 going to trucks needing even more clearance than modern bridges allow.

The permitting operation has come under intense scrutiny since 36-year-old Tam Trong Tran was killed when a 15-foot big rig drove under a bridge two inches lower on the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim and lost its load. The incompatible route had been approved by a Caltrans worker, who had failed to notice the height discrepancy when approving the permit.

Since the fatal accident, a union grievance was filed by a permit writer who cited “unsafe conditions for the public” as a result of chronic understaffing and overwork in the San Bernardino office. In addition, a hearing was held in Sacramento last week to probe events leading to the fatal mistake.

State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) who called the hearing together with state Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), said his concerns about the safety on California’s roads has risen dramatically as he learns more about the permitting operation.

“What we are in right now is a very dangerous situation,” Dunn said. “If we had the dollars to go around and adjust bridges to modern times it would be perfect, but we don’t. Instead, we have a permit operation with serious problems.”

Caltrans Director Jose Medina acknowledged last week that there have been serious breakdowns in that permitting system--revealing the 24 accidents caused by bad permits since March 1996. Officials originally portrayed the fatal July accident as very unusual, saying it was one of only three errors made in the last three years.

While oversized truck traffic has increased nearly 40% in the last three years, staffing in the office has risen only 10%, according to Caltrans officials.

According to the union grievance, the permit offices have been troubled since their consolidation into two regional offices--one in San Bernardino and one in Sacramento--five years ago under then-Gov. Pete Wilson’s administration. Internal memos included in the grievance show an emphasis on approval of permits within two hours of getting the request from truck companies. The grievance also includes tallies of permits written in the San Bernardino office which show workers averaging far more than the 25 permits a day Medina has said they are expected to complete.

Permit writers say they are asked to do complicated jobs where the consequences of making a mistake can be dire. Still impassible for oversized loads are such crucial routes as the exchange of the 405 and 710 freeways.

To ensure safe travel, trucking companies with oversized loads must seek permission to travel a route Caltrans employees check to ensure poses no problems.

In addition, construction on existing bridges creates changing hazards on the roads--making normally safe routes dangerous. Existing bridges are raised only as other planned freeway improvements are made, Caltrans officials said. For example, dozens of overpasses along the Santa Ana Freeway are now being raised as part of a $1-billion widening project.

Until the 1960s, a clearance of 15 feet under overpasses was considered sufficient to handle traffic. In 1963, the federal government required bridges built on interstates to be at least 16 1/2 feet high in order to accommodate military equipment. California adopted the federal standard on its state roads five years later, but more than 7,000 of the 12,127 bridges now in the state had already been built by then.

John Steele, a supervising engineer for Caltrans in Sacramento, said the cost of rebuilding a bridge on a remote road can run about $3 million, with the price skyrocketing in urban areas.

“We have a system in place that deals with routing the trucks,” he said. “We should be able to get any load where it needs to go.”

Dunn and others question how safely that is being done right now.

Medina has promised to hire more staff and said he authorized the use of emergency funds to upgrade technology being used in the permitting office, in a letter to Dunn and Karnette.

Only since the fatal accident have permits been reviewed by more than one person before final approval. Errors have been discovered since that policy was implemented, Caltrans officials said, although they did not know how many, if any, of them would have resulted in accidents.