Cause of Bridge’s Collapse Is Sought

State officials are investigating the collapse last week of a temporary bridge near Lompoc that caved in just seconds after an 83-ton truck crossed the expanse, sending the next vehicle sliding on a harrowing ride about 30 feet to the creek bed below.

The driver of the vehicle that crashed, San Fernando Valley resident Brian Foster, was not seriously injured.

As a result of the accident, state Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) said he plans to call for an expanded inquiry into Caltrans’ troubled oversized truck permitting office, which had issued a permit for the route over the temporary bridge that day.

“Early indications are that we had a permit that never should have been issued for this size weight for this temporary bridge,” Dunn said.

Officials from the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, which oversees Caltrans, said they have not pinpointed the cause of the collapse and are looking at a number of possibilities including structural problems with the bridge.

The temporary bridge on Highway 246 had a capacity of 38 tons--the equivalent of standard highway traffic--according to its builder.

*

Caltrans officials have said the agency believed the bridge was capable of handling the heavier truck, which was hauling a mammoth excavator, and that the permit was proper.

However, the bridge’s manufacturer says such a crossing would have only been safe at speeds of 5 mph or less, with the truck the sole vehicle on the bridge, traveling down the center line under close supervision by engineers. Bill Killeen, president of the New Jersey-based Acrow Corp. of America, said Caltrans told his firm that extra “impact” or support to the bridge wasn’t needed because speed restrictions would be in place for heavy trucks using the bridge.

“We’ve been in business for 50 years, and I’ve never heard of anything like this happening,” Killeen said.

Details of the accident--including the truck’s speed--will not be available until the final report is completed, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Steve Kohler. Caltrans referred all questions about the incident to the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, whose representative had no comment.

The truck permitting office that approved the route has been under intense scrutiny since the July death of a Westminster man, who was crushed by a 7,000-pound fuel tank that fell off a truck when its load slammed into an overpass. A veteran permit writer working overtime had issued the permit, failing to notice the discrepancy between the load’s 15-foot height and the 14-foot, 10-inch bridge on the Riverside Freeway.

Inquiries since then have turned up at least 15 similar errors this year alone and at least 33 accidents caused by bad permits in the past 3 1/2 years, which resulted in trucks crashing into overpasses and damaging roadways.

*

Dunn said the bridge’s collapse alarmed him in light of the truck permitting office’s history and recent statement by Caltrans that it could take as many as three years to get a comprehensive computerized system in place to reduce the chances of human error.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “This is just too many incidents in too short of a time. It’s beyond just coincidence.”

Witnesses at the scene said it was miraculous that no one was killed or seriously injured in the bridge collapse.

“Just looking at the aftermath, it looked like someone had demolished the bridge and dropped the center right into the bottom of Santa Rosa Creek with explosives,” said John Dorwin, of nearby Buellton who drove up to the bridge minutes after the collapse. “It was pretty scary.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Bridge Failure

State officials are trying to determine the cause of the dramatic collapse of a temporary bridge near Lompoc last week. The bridge fell to the ground about 30 feet below just seconds after a massive truck weighing 83 tons crossed the span.