Hundreds of Southland Bridges Too Low for Oversized Trucks

Hundreds of bridges throughout the Southland 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 routing of trucks resulted in at least 24 accidents during the past 3 1/2 years.

About 45% of Los Angeles County’s 1,060 overpasses are lower than modern standards. In Orange County, nearly 22% of bridges are lower than the 16 1/2-foot height.

On the Riverside Freeway in Orange County, where a Westminster man was crushed to death last month by a 7,000-pound fuel tank knocked from a big rig as it passed under an overpass, 13 bridges are lower than today’s standards, six of which are 15 feet or lower.

Caltrans’ bridge logs show that hundreds of low bridges have created an obstacle course for oversized trucks on state roads.

Caltrans officials say they have no plans to retrofit, noting that the cost of rebuilding a bridge on a remote road can run about $3 million, with the price far higher in urban areas. Besides, they say, they do not need to do the repairs.

“We have a system in place that deals with routing the trucks,” said John Steele, a supervising engineer for Caltrans in Sacramento. “We should be able to get any load where it needs to go.”

Caltrans officials say they will continue to rely on their permitting offices to direct the estimated 200,000 oversized trucks expected to travel California’s roads this year. About half of those permits will be issued to trucks taller than the 14-foot legal limit. About 12,000 will go to trucks that need even more clearance than the 16 1/2 feet that up-to-date bridges allow.

The permitting system has come under scrutiny since 36-year-old Tam Trong Tran of Westminster was killed when a 15-foot big rig drove under a bridge on the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim that was 2 inches lower than the big rig. The route had been approved by a Caltrans worker, who had failed to notice the discrepancy between the load and bridge heights.

Since the July accident, a permit writer filed a union grievance, citing “unsafe conditions for the public” as a result of chronic understaffing and overwork in Caltrans’ San Bernardino office. A hearing was held in Sacramento last week to probe events leading to the crash.

State Sens. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) and Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) called the hearing. Dunn said his concern about 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 conceded last week that there have been serious breakdowns in the system--revealing the 24 accidents caused by bad permits since March 1996. Officials originally described the July accident as unusual, saying it was one of only three errors made in the past three years.

While oversized truck traffic has increased nearly 40% in the state 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 Redding--five years ago under the administration of then-Gov. Pete Wilson. Internal memos included in the grievance allege that there is pressure to get permits approved within two hours of getting requests from trucking firms.

The grievance included tallies of permits written in the San Bernardino office that show workers averaging far more than the 25 permits a day that 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 grave. Still impassible for oversized loads are such crucial routes as the exchange of the San Diego and Long Beach freeways.

To ensure safety, trucking companies with oversized loads must seek permission to travel a route checked by Caltrans employees.

Ongoing construction on bridges creates changing hazards--making normally safe routes dangerous. Bridges are raised only as other freeway improvements are made.

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High-Risk Trucking

With more than one in five bridges failing to meet modern height standards, Orange County freeways are an obstacle course for oversized big rig trucks.