Audit Assails Caltrans for California 33 Project

Bungling by Caltrans led to a yearlong delay and a $321,000 overrun on a California 33 improvement project, state auditors disclosed Tuesday.

The state agency came up with a flawed design and was slipshod in monitoring its general contractor, a report from the state auditor concluded. Caltrans also fell down on public relations and failed to note that its contractor’s insurance company was nearly broke, the auditors said.

The audit was done at the request of Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), who fielded numerous complaints from motorists inconvenienced by the on-again, off-again project.

The report “shines a light on areas where Caltrans needs to make improvements to prevent problems such as those experienced in Ventura County’s Highway 33 project,” Jackson said Tuesday. “Now we must work to ensure that Caltrans makes the necessary changes.”

Construction of a three-mile concrete median on California 33 between west Main Street in Ventura and Crooked Palm Road started early in 2000. It was not completed until last Dec. 12. At times, lanes were closed and the roadway was narrowed by temporary barricades.

Sampling Caltrans practices around the state, the audit examined 19 other projects. Most came in under budget and experienced delays that were “reasonable,” the report said.

That conclusion pleased Maria Contreras-Sweet, secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. She acknowledged “isolated problems” on California 33 and vowed to correct most of the management shortcomings found at other projects as well.

The audit criticized Caltrans engineers for poor record-keeping. At five of the 20 projects, engineers did not keep required daily records. At 14, engineers did not note those days when work could have been done but wasn’t.

Such records are essential in resolving business disputes, the auditors said.

The California 33 project was badly executed from the outset. Pressed for time, Caltrans staff members gave the contractor design plans that did not take into account a previous coating of asphalt that raised some portions of the road, the audit said.

On top of that, the original contractor used a concrete mix so wet that portions of its barrier crumbled and had to be rebuilt by another contractor, the audit said.

After 22 months marked by equipment problems, financial difficulties and delay, Caltrans fired its first contractor, Tapuz Enterprises of Reseda. However, the state may have difficulty collecting on the firm’s performance bond because its insurance company is insolvent, the audit said.

Auditors recommended that Caltrans check the financial stability of insurers. However, agency officials responded that the job would be better performed by state insurance officials.