Technology Recruited in War on Graffiti

Graffiti along the San Diego Freeway near Westminster in Orange County was so bad two years ago that Caltrans officials resorted to a tactic that sounds like something straight out of the movie “Revenge of the Nerds.”

The agency rigged a sprinkler system with motion detectors to soak graffiti taggers who tried to vandalize a freeway wall. It didn’t work.

Animals and homeless people who lived in the freeway landscape were doused. Eventually, angry, waterlogged vandals broke off the sprinkler heads.

In the war against freeway graffiti, the California Department of Transportation is constantly testing new tactics in an effort to find the equivalent of a missile defense shield--but much cheaper.

For good reason. Each year, the agency spends more than $3.6 million to paint over 48 million square feet of graffiti in the state. That is money that doesn’t go to filling potholes, improving traffic flow or adding freeway lanes.

More than 40% of the state’s total budget for graffiti removal--$1.5 million--is spent annually in Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties. Because of that, Southern California has become the state’s primary testing ground for new anti-graffiti techniques.

The efforts have ranged from the practical (razor wire to keep vandals from climbing sign poles) to the innovative (fast-growing ivy and vines to cover vulnerable walls). And then there are the duds, such as the motion-triggered sprinkler system.

Most of the ideas are tested by scientists and university researchers at Caltrans’ New Technology and Research Unit in Sacramento. Scientists there are working with USC researchers to develop a laser beam that can remove graffiti from any surface. If it is successful, Caltrans officials say, the laser will eliminate graffiti in much the same way that doctors use lasers to remove blemishes or unwanted hair from skin.

Graffiti taggers and Caltrans officials have been at odds for so long that each side has become intimately knowledgeable about the other’s tactics.

Frank, a former tagger from the Palms area of Los Angeles who did not want his last name used, considers Caltrans a worthy adversary. But he said Caltrans has yet to come up with a foolproof graffiti deterrent.

“There’s ways around everything,” said Frank, who retired from tagging a few years ago.

In the subculture of taggers, painting a freeway sign high on a bridge or at the top of a pole is called “going to the heavens.”

In the past, Caltrans wrapped signs and poles with barbed wire to keep taggers on the ground. But taggers used wire cutters to get around that barrier.

Caltrans has responded by using casehardened razor wire that can be cut only with pneumatic bolt cutters--something that taggers cannot carry up a pole without help from friends.

But the razor wire creates an ugly, prison-like atmosphere. For that reason, Caltrans officials in Orange County have stopped using it.

As an alternative to razor wire, Caltrans crews in Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties have begun installing metal hoods, called rat guards, on sign poles. The hoods work like the baffles that keep squirrels from climbing into bird feeders.

Another alternative to razor wire is a product called Nugard. It is a metal sleeve that is wrapped around sign poles and is covered with jagged points like those on a cheese grater. Anyone who tries to climb over the sharp points comes down looking like Swiss cheese.

Expect to see lots of the cheese-grater sleeves, because Caltrans officials in Los Angeles and Ventura counties bought $10,000 worth of the material last year.

Still, taggers can be crafty. Michael Miles, Caltrans deputy district director of maintenance for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, said taggers have been known to drive onto a bridge or overpass and tie ropes around their waists with the other end fastened to a car bumper. The tagger hangs over the freeway bridge as the car’s driver backs the vehicle to lower the tagger to an overhanging freeway sign, he said.

“These kids have no sense of danger,” Miles said.

Throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties, Caltrans has planted ivy and vines along freeway shoulders to provide sound walls with a leafy cover. But such vegetation requires an irrigation system, which can be costly. Also, the ivy and vines take several months--sometimes years--to completely cover a wall.

Another problem: Some taggers have no respect for Mother Nature. On a recent Monday morning, a Caltrans crew that was painting over graffiti on a sound wall on the Century Freeway in Downey noticed that taggers had snapped several branches off two trees that blocked a view of the wall from the freeway.

“I can guarantee you that Caltrans landscape crews didn’t do that,” said Rick Cabrera, a Caltrans maintenance supervisor.

Several private manufacturers make paint-resistant coatings that are intended to keep graffiti from sticking to freeway signs and walls. But Caltrans officials say such coatings are too expensive to use on huge stretches of freeway walls.

Miles said Caltrans is also reluctant to use high-pressure steam and water to clean graffiti from sound walls because the watery residue that ends up in storm drains may violate the Clean Water Act of 1990.

Ultimately, Caltrans’ most cost-effective tactic is to simply paint over graffiti. Fight fire with fire. But motorists complain that the Caltrans paint doesn’t always match the walls it covers. That is because Caltrans is required by state law to use recycled paint, which isn’t always available in the exact colors to match the walls.

Still, taggers admit that that tactic is still the most effective deterrent.

“It’s discouraging because you hit up on [a wall] one day and sometimes by the next day it’s already gone,” said Frank. “You are thinking: I’m just wasting paint and risking getting caught.”