Defect Was Found Before Bridge Fell

About 3 1/2 hours before a temporary bridge collapsed last week in Lompoc, Caltrans engineers noticed a potential problem with the structure and notified agency officials in Sacramento, who did not shut down the bridge and decided not to do further inspections until the following day, a Caltrans spokeswoman said Friday.

By that time, the 190-foot span on California 246 had dropped into the creek bed beneath it, just seconds after a legally permitted truck weighing more than twice the bridge’s capacity drove across. The driver of the vehicle behind the truck fell about 30 feet as the span collapsed but was not injured.

About 11 a.m. on Oct. 21, a Caltrans employee noticed bent steel in the structure during an inspection of the bridge, said Caltrans spokeswoman Lauren Wonder.

After consulting the contractor overseeing construction and the bridge’s manufacturer, Caltrans officials decided that the defect did not warrant immediate closure of the bridge, which handled 20,000 cars a day, a Caltrans source said. As an added precaution, however, a state expert planned to come out the next day. The bridge collapsed at 2:15 p.m.

On Friday, a second accident occurred at the Caltrans construction site, when a 35-ton crane working to replace the collapsed bridge fell through a temporary road and toppled, injuring the driver. Cal-OSHA closed down the site and is investigating.

Lawmakers on Friday stepped up their criticism of Caltrans, whose leadership has been the subject of several state legislative hearings in recent months.

“What we’re really seeing here is a culmination of years of mediocre leadership at Caltrans. Now they appear to be collapsing under their own bureaucratic weight,” said state Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), who plans to call for an audit of the state agency.

State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), who serves with Karnette on the Senate transportation committee, says it will be “devastating” if Caltrans knew about a potential problem with the bridge before the permit was even issued.

“I don’t feel like I can assure my constituents or anyone else that these roads are safe,” Dunn said. “We have to deal with this problem immediately before anyone else is hurt or killed.”

Criticism of Caltrans began earlier this year when a truck hit an overpass in Anaheim, losing its cargo and killing a Westminster man who was driving behind it. A permit writer failed to notice a discrepancy between the 15-foot-high load and a 14-foot, 10-inch overpass on the Riverside Freeway.

At least 33 times in the past 3 1/2 years, permit writers routing oversized trucks on the highways have sent the vehicles slamming into low-lying bridges, according to records.

Dunn and others said the crane accident Friday morning, which left its driver trapped for 45 minutes, was added cause for concern, raising questions about Caltrans oversight of contractors on its construction projects.

The crane, which was being used to drive pilings to replace the temporary bridge, was crossing Santa Rosa Creek on a makeshift dirt road when a metal culvert gave way, tipping over the 120-foot machine. The driver, Bobby Bauch, was transported to a local hospital with leg injuries but was not seriously injured.

“It’s really unbelievable that that happened,” said Freda Radich, a spokeswoman for the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency which is investigating the bridge collapse. “You have to start to wonder what will happen next.”

In the two weeks it had been opened, the bridge had carried at least six overweight trucks. It was designed to do so only under narrow conditions: traveling at 5 mph or less, staying to the middle of the bridge, with no other vehicles on the two-lane structure.

Bill Killeen, president of Acrow Corp. of America, said his 50-year-old company has never before had a bridge collapse. Killeen said his employees asked Caltrans about adding strength to the bridge to handle heavy trucks but were told it would not be necessary because a strict speed limit would be in place.

Permit writers, meanwhile, were unaware that any restrictions were needed, or even that a temporary structure had been erected along the route. The final truck over the bridge had been issued a permit just two hours before the accident containing no such restrictions.

The driver of the truck, Jon Milby, of Goleta, was going close to the 55 mph speed limit when the bridge started shaking. He barely made it over, according to the California Highway Patrol.