Editor's Note

By Jeff Weiss

Welcome to the new Forward, the Caltrans Bay Area quarterly magazine. It’s been awhile - about seven years - since the last edition was published. So depending on your date of hire, you could be excused if you haven’t heard of us. For those of you with a longer tenure at Caltrans District 4, welcome to a new format.

What’s different?

The name, for one thing. Since its inception in the 70s, the district newsletter has been called the Fourword, a play on the word four, as in District 4.  Our goal isn’t to eliminate play. Indeed, our goal is to take advantage of the electronic format to be more playful and interactive with our readers. The name acknowledges the new direction of our publication and gives a nod to the past.

You are most likely reading this on a screen. A digital publication allows us to save trees, reduce costs, and make use of a medium like video.  In fact, our feature story is a video of District Director Tony Tavares talking about recent challenges, opportunities and changes to the workplace in response to the coronavirus. To help you unwind, I recommend another video in our Vista Point. Shot from the eastern shoreline below the Bay Bridge, the peaceful aquatic scenery stands in stark contrast to the rattle and hum of the bridge deck above.

Working closely with our Audio-Visual department provides a words-and-pictures synergy that wasn’t available in past Fourwords. The use of graphics, photos and maps not only brightens the page, but enhances the reader’s understanding of the story.  We even had the wherewithal to produce a graphic story, a Fish Tale no less, about Caltrans’ involvement in a little-known stream in San Mateo County.

As a forum for internal communications, the Forward will dispense practical information to help you find resources on the Caltrans intranet, the world-wide-web or in the physical realm of the district or field offices. We intend to strengthen communication between departments and expand your knowledge in fun and engaging ways.

Flexibility at Work

Welcome to the changed world! During the second week of March, an earlier version of the district newsletter had taxied down the runway and was ready to take flight like a brand-new airplane. In the cabin were finished articles, neatly dressed and sitting in their seats, destined for inboxes throughout the district. Well, the coronavirus hijacked that plane. Those neatly-dressed articles are sitting on blocks of ice, waiting for another issue.

Which brings me to the theme of our launch issue, which is flexibility.

The coronavirus outbreak has profoundly changed how we do our jobs. Many employees now work from home and some projects have been fast tracked to take advantage of the lighter traffic. By being flexible we have adapted to remote working and even finished projects that weren't scheduled to start for months.  

Caltrans seems to be paving everywhere now. Read Sunny Day Paving to find out why. The recently completed 101 Alemany Project in San Francisco was an exercise in flexibility. Its setting on one of the busiest Bay Area freeways was problem enough, but alternative routes were congested, and BART trains were running beyond capacity. There seemed to be no good time to do this project.  

Until there was. The sudden drop in traffic volumes provided an opportunity to work around-the-clock. But revising the project plans and work schedule in a matter of weeks took a great deal of expertise, effort, and flexibility. 

Flexibility at Home

So how is working from home going?  Perhaps we’ve taken for granted the resources available at the office. Managing computer issues can be frustrating and overwhelming.  To help with such matters, our neighbor to the north, District 1, created some helpful videos for remote desktop connections that you can find in the Tool Drawer. 

With the yoga classes in the CPR room canceled, how do you keep yourself physically flexible, especially when working from a self-designed home office? The Tool Drawer has a link for that, too.

Shout Outs

Phillip Anderson, our on-staff graphic artist, was indispensable in the creation of Forward, developing the visual framework, color schemes, masthead and clickable modules that link you to the stories.

Big thanks to Carl Weingarten, our webmaster, who ventured into the cyber-jungle and uploaded everything to the web at a time when our state internet policies were undergoing frequent change. Special thanks to our videographer, Richard Schatzman, and our photographer, John Huseby.

One last thing, in this issue you will find a puzzle called The Match Game, illustrated by Mel Vera Cruz.  Mel contributed many of the illustrations you’ll find in the articles. We thank him for that. The Match Game will test your knowledge of the names of District 4 highways.  And no, you will not have to wait until the next issue to find the answers.  

I hope you enjoy the premiere issue of the Forward.

If you have story suggestions, comments, or questions, please email me at jeffrey.weiss@dot.ca.gov