In About-Face, Caltrans OKs Weld Review

Beginning next week, outside metals experts will be allowed to inspect faulty welds pulled from the Orange Crush interchange--a concession state transportation officials made to avoid a showdown with a state Senate committee probing Caltrans’ management.

State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) last month requested Orange Crush weld samples during legislative hearings. Caltrans officials refused, challenging Dunn to get a subpoena if he wanted his experts to look at the welds taken from the bridges that link the Santa Ana, Orange and Garden Grove freeways.

But the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency has adopted a more conciliatory stance. In a Nov. 9 letter, Undersecretary Mark T. Harris told Dunn that Caltrans “will make these samples available for your inspection at your earliest convenience.”

Independent metallurgists will review the samples at a Caltrans materials lab in Los Angeles as early as next week, Dunn said Tuesday.

Harris was on vacation and could not be reached for comment. Caltrans officials declined to discuss their sudden about-face, instead referring questions to the Cabinet level agency.

A spokeswoman for the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency did not return messages left at her office Wednesday.

Dunn said Business, Transportation and Housing Secretary Maria Contreras-Sweet learned about the weld confrontation last month during a trip to Orange County. Then-Caltrans district director Mike McManus told Contreras-Sweet that Caltrans had refused Dunn’s request.

“The next day I started receiving contacts from others at very high levels of Business, Transportation and Housing,” Dunn said. “They apologized, and said they would get to the bottom of it.”

Finally, Dunn received Harris’ letter last week.

“I’m very pleased that they made what I feel is the right decision,” Dunn said. “The decision was not made at the Caltrans level but at the Business, Transportation and Housing level. I don’t know what caused them to change course, but I’m interested in finding out. I want to know why [it took] a month for this decision to be reached.”

Caltrans officials last month said they could not release the welds because the joints might become evidence in a potential lawsuit over shoddy construction on the $85-million Orange Crush project. Releasing the information early would hinder Caltrans’ case, they argued.

Those issues were resolved, Dunn said. Because the welds will be inspected at a Caltrans lab, the evidence will be protected.

“Now we will be able to find out if these welds are deficient, and just how deficient they are,” Dunn said. “Do they call into question the integrity of the Orange Crush? That’s the question I want answered most.”

Meanwhile, work will begin in early January to remove 700 welds in the Orange Crush bridge columns and replace them with mechanical couplers. Bids for the job will be opened Dec. 9, Caltrans district spokeswoman Deborah Harris said Wednesday.