Firms Clean Up on Road Work

Few people can honestly say they feel good about picking up dirty diapers, soiled condoms and used jugs of motor oil from the side of a road.

But then again, few are as devoted to the environment as Yedvart Tchakerian. The retired businessman spends hours each week cleaning a busy stretch of Topanga Canyon Boulevard under the state’s Adopt-a-Highway program.

“When I go out there, I feel like I’m doing a good deed,” said Tchakerian, who patrols his adopted roadway in the Santa Monica Mountains with a litter pickup stick and plastic bag.

The thousands of Adopt-a-Highway signs posted along California’s immense freeway system may give the impression of civic-minded individuals like Tchakerian and platoons of private-sector volunteers keeping the roadways litter free.

But such hands-on volunteerism is increasingly rare in the California Adopt-a-Highway program. Particularly in urban Southern California, many busy freeways have become too dangerous and require too much work for nonprofessionals to maintain.

In Los Angeles and Orange counties, for example, most freeway stretches have been adopted by big corporations and service groups. They, in turn, hire professional contractors to perform the backbreaking labor.

Their motivation could be philanthropic, but self-promotion is also a factor, given they can advertise their good deeds on freeway signs seen by millions of drivers.

California was the first state, in 1990, to permit professionals to perform the work for sponsors. The change gave birth to a small but profitable group of contractors who specialize in freeway cleanup work. The largest of these firms manage multimillion-dollar budgets, scores of employees and branch offices throughout the nation.

That represents a dramatic change since the program began in 1989, when most of the volunteers were from college fraternities, civic clubs and religious groups that did the dirty work themselves.

The California Department of Transportation officials have no preference regarding who cleans state roads. The program is a success, they say, because it saves the state about $5 million per year in maintenance costs.

“They are all doing something for the community,” said Al Sanchez, the Caltrans Adopt-a-Highway coordinator for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

The Adopt-a-Highway program remains one of the state’s most popular volunteer programs. In 2001, volunteers and their contractors picked up about 30,000 cubic yards of roadway trash--enough to fill 2,000 dump trucks. That was 17% more trash than was collected the previous year.

Businesses, service groups and individuals have adopted more than 8,000 miles of freeway, pledging for two-year periods to clean segments of two miles each. Caltrans offers the segments on a first-come, first-served basis. Under the program, volunteers can also remove graffiti or plant trees and wildflowers along state routes.

But who does the hard labor varies with the landscape.

In rural areas such as Ventura, Marin and Napa counties, most of the freeway segments are cleaned by untrained volunteers--sometimes retirees, church groups or families--according to Caltrans officials.

But in Los Angeles County, nearly 80% of the roadway segments are cleaned by contractors on behalf of individuals or companies. In Orange County, professionals maintain 60% of the freeway stretches.

That is a surprise, even to some participants in the Adopt-a-Highway program.

A spokesman for Blue Cross of California said he assumed that employees of the giant health care provider cleaned up a stretch of Ventura Freeway adopted by the company. Caltrans records show that it’s actually a contractor, paid by Blue Cross, who does the work.

Part of the reason contractors are cleaning more of the state’s roadways is the increasingly hazardous nature of many urban freeways. Downtown Los Angeles is considered so hazardous, for instance, that Caltrans allows only professional contractors to sweep, pluck and bag. Some of those stretches carry up to 250,000 cars per day.

Joe Connolly, a wholesale carpet salesman who removes graffiti on an adopted segment of the Santa Monica Freeway, said he has had several close calls with speeding cars.

“You are talking about people going 65 or 70 mph,” he said. “The cars move very fast.”

Caltrans also recommends professional contractors for heavily littered freeways that require a cleanup at least twice a month.

Volunteers are increasingly finding containers of urine, dead animals, car batteries and even weapons on the side of the road.

Caltrans officials say the volume and nature of the hazardous trash require the commitment of paid professionals.

As a result, more of the freeway cleanups have been assigned to trained contractors, some charging up to $300 per month to maintain a two-mile stretch. (That would typically pay for a cleaning crew to work on the segment every other week.)

Millions in Sales Generated

The state’s oldest and largest freeway contractor is Adopt-a-Highway Maintenance Corp., a Costa Mesa-based firm that generated nearly $8 million in sales last year, according to industry analysts.

The firm, launched in 1990 by three graduates of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, employs more than 100 workers in 12 states. In California, the firm cleans about 1,000 miles of freeway under the Adopt-a-Highway program.

“The business has been growing steadily because more and more is thrown to the contractors,” said Tony Decker, who co-founded another contracting firm, California Highway Adoption Co.

Firms Employee Many Workers

Decker and his four sons previously operated a commercial landscaping company. Now they employ about 30 workers with offices in Northern and Southern California.

Adopt-a-Highway Litter Removal Service of America was started by Teryl Macia, a public relations executive who started the business after she adopted a segment of Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach. The firm, which has about 40 full-time employees and offices in 10 states, made about $2.6 million in sales last year, according to an industry estimate.

Freeway contractors do more than collect litter. They also file applications with Caltrans to get the most coveted, high-profile freeway segments for their clients. The companies design and install the roadside signs that give the sponsors credit for the work.

Corporations and groups that adopt freeway segments say they are primarily motivated by altruism and civic pride. But some concede that marketing considerations play a role, giving them a chance to display their names and logos before millions of drivers.

The most coveted roadway sections, not surprisingly, are the most heavily traveled freeways. The waiting list to adopt a stretch of the San Diego Freeway in West Los Angeles has been as long as four years.

To ensure that the program is not abused for marketing purposes, Caltrans prohibits phone numbers or business addresses on the signs. Its employees also inspect each segment to ensure that the roadway is kept clean.

Newhall Land and Farming Co. has for six years paid a contractor to maintain two segments of the Golden State Freeway in Santa Clarita, near the company headquarters.

“It is a nice marketing opportunity that shows that we put our money where our mouth is,” said company spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer.

Eric Schiffer, president of the 99 Cents Only Store, said his company pays a contractors to maintain three stretches of the Glen Anderson (105) Freeway in Hawthorne because “it’s an opportunity to be a corporate citizen.”

He added that the signs posted on those busy freeways also help boost the company’s image. “It doesn’t hurt,” he said.