Safety Inspection Fears Over Bay Area Bridges May Extend to SoCal
An investigation into safety testing practices used on Northern California bridges is raising questions about structures here in the Southland.
KNX 1070′s Pete Demetriou reports alleged improprieties involving at least one Caltrans safety inspector has sent shockwaves throughout the state.
A report in the Sacramento Bee alleges Duane Willis falsified data on tests done on support columns on four Northern California bridges, including the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
The Bee investigation, which began last May, found internal Caltrans emails that alleged copying and pasting of data between test files and other irregularities.
Willis is no longer with Caltrans, but the findings have stoked fears that the heavily-trafficked bridge may not be able to sustain a severe earthquake - a charge that Governor Jerry Brown roundly rejected.
“All our engineers that work with Caltrans, all the people that I’ve asked to look into it, they feel that the Bee story is baseless, it borders on malpractice,” Brown said last Thursday at a rally in Oakland.