CALTRANS REVEALS QUAKE FIX PROBLEMS; BAD WELDS FOUND AT 210-118 INTERCHANGE.

Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau

Hundreds of substandard welds lie buried in concrete meant to keep freeway bridges in the San Fernando Valley and across the state from collapsing in an earthquake, according to documents obtained by the Daily News.

Caltrans memos show that the welding defects went undetected during construction work on more than 70 freeway bridges and overpasses - including the 210/118 interchange in the Valley - as part of the state's $3.5 billion seismic retrofit program.

Discovery of the problems prompted officials to order thousands of welds torn out of one overpass in San Diego as a safety precaution. But when Caltrans found similar faults in about one-quarter of the bridges statewide, officials decided the problem would not diminish the bridges' strength in a quake.

As a result, most of the questionable work stayed in place - although contractors were fined for faulty work.

Critics of the agency say it is Caltrans that botched oversight of the projects and that the agency's response is bureaucratic nonsense, leaving the quality of the retrofit work in question.

``What Caltrans is saying is, `We ordered something we didn't need, so it's OK they did it wrong,' '' said Bruce Blanning, executive assistant for Professional Engineers in California Government. ``It's nuts. It's nuts.''

Rather than order the work redone, officials have assessed contractors $1.6 million in penalties for welding defects, including $227,669 for 290 flawed welds found on the interchange between the Foothill and Ronald Reagan freeways in Lake View Terrace.

``We've assured ourselves that structurally, these bridges are going to do the job we designed them to do - with a margin for safety,'' said Jim Roberts, the state's chief bridge engineer.

But the move also is drawing fire from contractors who contend they did the work properly. They say the fault lies with Caltrans, whose experts only questioned the welds long after the agency's own engineers approved them.

``What was acceptable for the last seven or eight years I've been in business all of a sudden doesn't meet the standard anymore, and it makes me look like dirt,'' said Jesse Mejia, owner of a Perris welding company that did some of the work. ``If the welds were bad, then why did they accept them?''

At issue is the quality of the welds used to join lengths of metal rods, known as rebar, at the base, or footing, of the columns that hold up the overpasses. The quake strengthening work called for enlarging the footings to hold steel jackets used to encase the columns.

To ensure that the welds were solid, inspectors took X-rays of some of the finished welds and reviewed them for defects. Caltrans officials claim they discovered flaws overlooked by private experts - who at the time were often hired by the welders themselves.

Bulk of problems

The problem first emerged at the San Diego project in 1996. The discovery prompted a statewide review of 298 bridges.

The review is not yet complete, but officials have discovered not-to-specification welds on 74 bridges, overpasses and off-ramps. That number could rise, because the state has yet to complete reviews on 66 of the bridges, officials said.

The defects and resulting charge-offs vary widely, from as little as $575 for a project in Northern California to as much as $438,668 for the San Diego project, Caltrans documents show.

But the bulk of the charges arise from projects in Los Angeles County, where welding problems have been found on 33 bridges and overcrossings, state documents show.

On the $3.3 million 210/118 project, which was completed in April, a review of 842 radiographs found that one-third of the welds didn't meet Caltrans specifications.

To make up for the defective work, Caltrans is withholding $227,669 in payments to the prime contractor on the project - the third-largest of the 31 fines levied statewide.

The fine has Tony Federico - whose company, Lake View Terrace-based Superior Gunite, was the prime contractor on the job - fuming. Federico said they poured concrete over the welding work - which was done by Mejia's firm - only after it was approved by a Caltrans inspector.

``The local inspector here looked at them and gave us the OK. He checked them,'' Federico said. ``We're saying: `Wait a minute. You guys looked at this and accepted it; you told us to pour. If there was a problem, why didn't you tell us? We would have re-welded them.' ''

Federico agreed with Caltrans, however, that even if the welds are flawed, it won't diminish the strength of the footings.

``The weld doesn't make that much difference,'' he said. ``In the old days, we would tie that steel with wire. Once the concrete is good and hard, it isn't going anywhere.''

Contractors penalized 

State officials are also withholding $33,000 from a contractor who retrofitted overpasses at the interchange of the Glendale and Foothill freeways. Caltrans is also withholding $7,745 for work on the interchange at the Ventura and Moorpark freeways in Thousand Oaks.

Caltrans found problems on other projects as well. On a $14 million project begun in 1994 to strengthen bridges where the Santa Monica Freeway crosses the Los Angeles River east of downtown, a review of 1,018 radiographs from footing welds showed that 25 percent fell short of specifications.

In addition, 28 percent could not be evaluated because the X-rays were deemed unreadable, according to a Caltrans memo.

And a review of 559 radiographs of other welds on the same project found that only about half met specifications, according to a 1997 memo. As a result, Caltrans is seeking an administrative deduction of $409,729 on the project.

Upland-based Advanco Constructors, which held the prime contract on the Santa Monica Freeway project, is fighting Caltrans over the withheld payment.

``How can paying $400,000 make that bridge any safer?'' said Jacque Russell, a vice president for Advanco. ``This is the screwiest deal I have ever heard.''

Caltrans officials said they consider the charges appropriate. They contend that contractors are responsible for performing quality work. Taxpayers should pay full price only for work that fully meets specifications, they said.

Volume is part of problem

Roberts said he believes the trouble started with the huge increase in the volume of welding work needed as part of the seismic retrofit effort, which calls for upgrading more than 2,000 structures statewide.

``Some people got, not greedy necessarily, but they were moving pretty fast to get the work done,'' Roberts said.

In turn, the boom in welding also stretched the demand for X-ray specialists capable of testing the work. With only one inspector on the Caltrans staff statewide fully certified to check the X-rays, the agency had trouble keeping close tabs on the private inspection firms.

The department's on-site engineers didn't have the expertise to review the work themselves, Roberts said.

When the X-rays finally were reviewed, officials found many that hadn't been fully exposed, or shot at the right angle to expose flaws in the welds, officials said.

``Obviously, they were rushed,'' Roberts said. ``It's obviously sloppy work.''

Mejia said Caltrans unfairly upped the standards, both for acceptable welds and for the X-rays, after questions were raised about the San Diego project, which his company handled.

That welding work was ordered redone, Mejia said, even though it was done exactly the same way on dozens of other Caltrans projects, and tests showed the company's welds met strength tests.

``All this rebar welding has been done the same way,'' he said. ``If you're going to tear it down, you might as well just down the entire Century Freeway. I did all that.''

Mejia's company still is doing freeway work, but Caltrans has insisted on testing each weld, he said.

``The welds we're doing now, they're better than what you'd expect in a nuclear powerhouse,'' he added.

Caltrans officials acknowledged that they have rewritten their specifications to tighten up on future welding work. The agency also has hired more of its own experts to keep tabs on private inspectors, who now must be hired by the prime contractor on the job.

But they insisted there's no need to order all the welds redone.

``Even though it wasn't done perfectly to the specification, there's no point in going out there and digging it out,'' said Jim Drago, an agency spokesman.

They said the welds ordered removed in San Diego were on the bridge columns themselves, and therefore far more structurally important. Roberts said the rebar welding in the footings may not have been necessary at all, but was made part of the retrofit design to be ``ultraconservative.''

But critics - especially representatives of the engineers union that has battled with Caltrans for years about its use of private inspectors - called the widespread nature of the defects alarming.

``That's pretty bad,'' Blanning said. ``That's kind of spooky.''

Seismic work

Total contract: $3.3 million

General contractor: Superior Gunite, Lake View Terrace

Amount Caltrans is proposing to fine contractor: $227,000

CAPTION(S):

Photo, chart, box, map

PHOTO From left, Ron and Tony Federico of Superior Gunite stand under the retrofitted 210/118 interchange.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

Map: Site of bridge work

Dionisio Munoz/Daily News

Box: Seismic work

Chart: Number of welds inspected (total 842)

Number acceptable:(552 -- 66 per cent)

Number rejected: (290 -- 34 per cent)