Don’t Use Taxes to Fix Ramp

No matter who blew it on the $12-million carpool bridge near John Wayne Airport, Orange County taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for others’ mistakes.

The designer, builder and state overseers are busy blaming each other, but the Orange County Transportation Authority already is at work on more helpful activities. It is paying $100,000 to an independent expert to determine what went wrong and how to fix it.

OCTA acknowledged its own role in the mess and vowed to fix it: Though the county pays for the construction through a half-cent sales tax, OCTA probably failed to stay on top of the construction work.

Of course, the other three parties might have thought to keep the bill payer informed. But that didn’t happen. Back in June 2001, ironworkers raised concerns that there weren’t enough supporting rings, devices that connect cables and provide extra strength along the bridge. The designer said the number of rings met design standards of Caltrans, the project’s administrator. But none of the three -- Caltrans, the design firm, the construction company -- told OCTA, which didn’t find out for more than a year. No one knows if the supporting rings have anything to do with concrete chunks that have fallen from the bridge. Engineers are looking at other possible causes. But OCTA should have had an ongoing role in such important developments.

Bridge construction stopped in August, but no one bothered to tell taxpayers for three months.

Officials go to the mat to overcome public reluctance to pass new taxes. Such fiascos as this, with no one willing to accept a particle of responsibility, only make working people warier of entrusting more of their money to government, not to mention the worries they’ll have about driving on this swooping arch of concrete.

OCTA’s initial actions restore a small measure of public confidence. But the ultimate test comes down to money. The bridge expert from UC San Diego most likely will come up with a reasoned, objective explanation for the cracked bridge and a smart plan to fix it--or it will be torn down and rebuilt. His findings probably will be challenged by whichever company or agency he deems at fault. The whole mess will probably end in court; but first, the three parties involved should be forced to fix the problem. OCTA so far has been careful to say it doesn’t want to point fingers; once it has the facts, though, it will have to start laying blame and insist that Caltrans and the two firms live up to their promises.

It isn’t fair to the county’s taxpayers for the project’s completion to get hung up during a long court battle, nor should they pay an extra penny for this project.