State Panel Orders Probe of Faulty Bridge Welds

A state legislative committee on Monday ordered an investigation into how Caltrans allowed faulty welds in the 3-year-old bridges of the Orange Crush interchange, a problem that transportation officials say will cost about $4 million to fix.

“I want answers,” said Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), chairman of the Assembly’s Transportation Committee. “How could this happen?”

State and local officials were reacting Monday to a Times report that bridges in the busy interchange of the Santa Ana, Orange and Garden Grove freeways contain flimsy welds that Caltrans acknowledged could fail in an earthquake that was the magnitude of the Northridge temblor.

“You have a $71-million investment and here you haven’t made it earthquake-safe,” Torlakson said of the massive interchange project. “We have so precious few transportation dollars. To waste them on mistakes is wrong.”

Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim), a member of the Transportation Committee, said he supports the inquiry.

“My first gut reaction was, ‘Who was at fault here?’ ” Correa said. “I can’t begin to imagine the terrible problems it would cause if the Orange Crush was down. We need to fix it and fix it quickly.”

Tests earlier this year revealed that seven of 56 welds from Orange Crush bridge columns failed at pressures lower than they were designed to withstand. Although Caltrans has not determined how many of the 2,400 welds in the bridges are bad, they say they will go ahead and pay to find and fix them. The repair project is scheduled to begin in December.