Caltrans

Caltrans, The California Department of Transportation has ordered Tuesday to stop what federal regulators reported widespread releases of silt and pollution from road construction and maintenance sites in rivers and streams.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Caltrans one year to improve its program of stormwater management statewide and release control under threat of penalties under the Act Clean Water.

“Protecting our waters is a major priority for the EPA, and limit the damage caused by storm water from construction sites is a key goal,” said Jared Blumenfeld, regional administrator of EPA. “We urge Caltrans to join us in the struggle for water quality by controlling storm water.”

Series of field audits by regulators documented EPA Stormwater metals, sediment, oil, grease, pesticides and waste many construction sites along the 50,000 miles of Caltrans road and motorway it operates in California, said Greg Gholson, an enforcement officer and inspector for the EPA.

Among the findings, Gholson said, were lax management and lack of sediment control hillside dug during construction activities.

“We found several instances where controls were not installed properly or were not installed at all,” said Gholson, who explained that the carpet fibers may not have been put down to control runoff and erosion.

Inspections also found instances where the oils and fats have been released outside of the construction equipment.

“At any given construction site problems may not be necessary to run, but taken together the agency was very concerned about the shortcomings that have been seen,” said Gholson.

The Board directed Caltrans to improve its management and procedures and resolve problems through December 31, 2011.

Pollution from runoff has been blamed for damaging water quality in San Francisco Bay, the ocean and lakes, rivers and streams throughout the state.

Caltrans Cameras

Caltrans Cameras, Caltrans and the contractor Tutor Saliba continue to work on the bridge replacement project Antlers during the winter months. The $ 125 million project is funded with federal transportation money and the state through the State Highway Operation and Protection Program.

This project will replace Antlers Bridge on Interstate 5 in Shasta County on the Sacramento River arm of Shasta Lake near the community of Lakehead. The new structure will be 1,942 feet long, the bridge 104 feet wide concrete, and five bays. It will be built on a new alignment parallel to slightly east of the existing bridge. In addition, Article 0.4 mile long southern highway bridge will be realigned and the existing structure 1,330 feet long will be demolished and removed.

Tutor Saliba just completed the construction of the pillar 6 located on the north shore of the lake and close to 25% with a pillar on the south side. All excavation is done for the season after moving 162,000 cubic yards (16,000 truckloads dump) of the land last summer to make way for the new alignment. Much of the material is stored temporarily on the north shore of the lake beside the highway and will be used later for the decommissioning of the old alignment and re-contour trails former size.

The contractor has made progress on three different trestles they need to build the foundations of the bridge. A trestle is complete, it is half finished and the last is just beginning. They are currently working outside the completed bridges foundation construction at Pier 5, located along the northern edge of the lake. Recent efforts have been directed towards maintaining the site to minimize erosion now that winter is near.

Two cameras were recently installed building that will provide real-time images of work progress. The cameras take pictures every 15 minutes and download them to a website hosted by Earthcam. The images are archived and referenced to the corresponding date and time. The cameras can be found on the Caltrans District 2 website at: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist2/projects/antlers.htm.

Travel will be restricted to two lanes in both directions north and south during the winter months. The temporary concrete barrier will remain in place along the right side of the road through the project limits and work will continue throughout the winter mainly on the foundations of the bridge and access trestle. Boat ramp will remain open Antlers and lake access through the construction zone will be maintained.