Tag "Caltrans"
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Proposed pilot program could replace Caltrans with counties
Caltrans is on notice: A new bill looks at a life where counties would fix roads themselves. Responding to years of mismanagement and voter frustration with state roads, coupled with successful transportation programs administered in his home county, Sen. John Moorlach
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24 years of Caltrans well-drilling ignored laws; risked groundwater contamination
Sacramento County is threatening to fine Caltrans millions in taxpayer dollars for drilling hundreds of wells over a period of decades in violation of laws aimed at protecting groundwater, records show. The county set the possible fine at as much as
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Brown offers infrastructure compromise plan
Shifting gears from a public hands-off approach, Brown gave California lawmakers his own take on how to reach an agreement over new infrastructure spending. Brown’s proposal would impose $65 fees on drivers each year “and higher gas taxes to fund a
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Caltrans greenlights bike lane expansion
Bending to legislative prodding from Sacramento, California’s transportation bureaucracy has moved ahead with statewide plans to standardize and expand the Golden State’s bike lanes. Despite persistent criticism from bike-friendly advocacy groups like the Green Lane Project, Caltrans opted against such sweeping measures.
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If CA can’t build bridge, what about bullet train through mountains?
If the state of California can’t build a bridge, how can it handle the huge technological and engineering challenge of building a bullet train through two mountain ranges laced with seismic faults? Such questions are inevitable after the latest Sacramento Bee
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Gov. Brown, CalPERS face off in 2015
A piece of this year’s politics moving into 2015 is Gov. Jerry Brown’s tiff with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. In particular, Brown remains steamed over CalPERS’ use of temporary pay to pad pensions. In a letter to CalPERS, he said
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Did Caltrans cover up shoddy work on Bay Bridge?
Douglas Coe, an engineer under the employ of the California Department of Transportation, spent years working on the retrofit of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco. When the 25-year Caltrans veteran told his
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CalTRANS workers watching soccer on taxpayer time
Normally, I would cheer government workers wasting my tax dollars by goofing off. I wish IRS, Franchise Tax Board, numerous bureaucrats and others would spend all their working time — yes, even when earning pay, perks and pensions at my
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Update: Critics charge SF/Oakland Bay Bridge still unsafe
New questions have arisen about the subject of several stories I wrote last spring about the construction debacles on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge repairs. In May, I covered a report of the concerns of engineer Yun Chung. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake struck with 6.9 magnitude
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Will CA trust SF Bay Bridge re-opening?
After months of controversy over the 36 cracked bolts on the new eastern span of the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee made the decision in July to delay the Bay Bridge opening. But that decision was
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