Road Rumble

When the California Legislature returns from its July recess, one of its priorities must be to forge settlement of a 20-year turf war between state and private engineers over lucrative highway and transit construction work. Otherwise, this dispute will be decided by voters in a November ballot initiative sponsored by private contractors who want more of the state’s business. That is no way to manage a multibillion-dollar transportation program.

An agreement would not remove the initiative, Proposition 35, from the November ballot, but the sponsors presumably would agree not to press for passage.

Failure to settle this issue could also lead to long delays in the implementation of Gov. Gray Davis’ $6.8-billion traffic relief program over the next six years. The 11,000 unionized California Department of Transportation engineers, architects and surveyors cannot do all the work, and current state law tightly restricts the amount of Caltrans planning that can be contracted out to private firms. They will have to be allocated more of this work if the program is to go forward without unreasonable delay.

There is more than enough work for all, and it would take far too long to hire, train and house additional Caltrans workers.

Legislators sought to settle the dispute early this month, but negotiations broke down when private contractors balked at a proposal to give job protection to 10,500 state-employed engineers and in return give private firms about 30% of the new engineering and design work. The contractors wanted a larger share.

The plan actually was well balanced. The state needs a base-level Caltrans work force with long experience. In the past, Caltrans employment went up and down--often dramatically--depending on the availability of construction money. The state would be better off having a stable Caltrans work force that is capable of handling an average state engineering workload. Private firms could quickly fill the gap when the work pace increases, as it will now.

The governor’s traffic relief program is designed to quickly ease congestion. The sooner the work can be done, the better--provided there is no sacrifice of quality. The Legislature, with Davis’ help, needs to settle this matter in August rather than mire it in a bitter ballot dispute in November.