Director's Corner

Caltrans delivers when it comes to clearing roadways

As recently demonstrated, when there is a landslide or a winter storm, Caltrans employees are there to clear the highway. When there is a traffic incident or fire, Caltrans employees help keep California’s traffic flowing. The nearly 39 million Californians who use the state’s 50,000 lane miles rely on Caltrans to keep their quality of life and the economy going strong – and we deliver.

Caltrans employees work within inches of speeding traffic and in windy and below freezing temperatures in the winter. Thank you for what you do to sustain Californian’s quality of life by operating, maintaining and managing the transportation system. Thank you for lending a hand to stranded motorists. Thank you for your preventative work to protect the public from avalanches, rock slides and more. And most importantly, thank you for remembering our highest priority is safety.

In addition, Caltrans Maintenance employees have had more homeless encampment cleanups along California’s highways. As mentioned in the last Mile Marker performance report, Caltrans employees cleared 2,531 camps last fiscal year. That’s up 700 from the prior 2014 - 2015 fiscal year.  This topic has been in the news more this year. I want you to know that I appreciate your sensitivity to the homeless and your dedication to keeping our right-of-way safe.

In addition to our Maintenance activities, 2017 has a significant list of projects to deliver.

Last month we advertised a $156 million project to rehabilitate I-5 in Los Angeles near Santa Clarita just south of the I-5/SR-14 separation. In August, we will advertise a $175 million project to build carpool and high-occupancy toll lanes and an auxiliary lane on I-680 in the Bay Area. In September, we will start the bid process for a $137 million project in San Bernardino County to construct a four-lane divided expressway on SR-58, an interchange at SR-58 and U.S.-395, and an overhead bridge for the railroad so it doesn’t cross and block SR-58. We will also advertise a $29 million project to widen shoulders and repair and overlay SR-120 in Tuolumne County in September. At the end of 2017, we will advertise a $240 million project to integrate bus rapid transit on SR-82 in Santa Clara County. And we have much more planned for 2017. If you are working on these or other projects, please remember to “Be Work Zone Alert.”

Whether you are in project delivery or administration, planning and modal programs or maintenance, the district or headquarters, I appreciate what you do for the state of California, and I look forward to accomplishing great things in 2017.