COUNTY'S BRIDGES VULNERABLE RETROFITS HAVE TAKEN BACK SEAT TO OTHER TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

More than 100 bridges and overpasses in Los Angeles County remain vulnerable to collapse in a major earthquake, even as the state nears completion of a $2.5 billion, 17-year project to seismically retrofit the structures.

Officials said the city of Los Angeles has 26 bridges that still need to be reinforced and the county has 84.

Some of the structures include bridges and overpasses at Beverly and First streets in Glendale, Riverside Drive and Foothill Boulevard in Tujunga, and structures over the Los Angeles River on Winnetka, Tampa and Hyperion avenues, Glendale Boulevard and Vanowen Street.

Since the state four years ago shifted the burden of paying some of the costs to local governments, many of the retrofits have been put off as other projects have taken higher priority.

``Instead of making decisions to put funds into retrofit projects, many cities and counties have had other priorities and have put their money into those projects,'' said Stephen Maller, deputy director of the California Transportation Commission.

Following the Bay Area's Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 that killed 43 people, the California Department of Transportation had identified 2,200 state bridges and overpasses that needed to be retrofitted.

Since then, all but 11 have been fixed, including the Schuyler Heim Bridge in Long Beach - expected to cost $172 million - and the Oakland Bay Bridge in Oakland - expected to cost $6.3 billion.

Caltrans also identified 1,235 bridges and overpasses maintained by cities and counties that were at high risk of collapse in a major earthquake that had not been reinforced.

Of those, 692 have been fixed, but work still needs to be done on 543, according to a recent Caltrans report.

Most of the money available to fix the bridges comes from state and federal governments. Prior to 2002, the governor and Legislature divvied up the transportation funds to the cities and counties. The federal government paid for the 80 percent of the cost and the state picked up the remaining 20 percent.

But in 2002 during the budget crisis, state officials stopped state funding and decided to give the federal funds directly to cities and counties.

That left the decisions on how to prioritize the funding up to local governments and required them to come up with a 20 percent funding match.

Cash-strapped cities and counties have had difficulty coming up with the matching funds for the projects, which have had to compete with other needs such as fixing potholes and making other road improvements.

The situation has improved somewhat since January, when the federal government increased its contribution to 89 percent of the cost.

In Los Angeles, Caltrans identified 143 bridges and overpasses that needed to be seismically retrofitted. Of those, 117 have been fixed, 10 are under construction and 16 are in the design process.

Of the 16 in the design process, the city has committed to providing local matching funds on 15 of the bridges, Bureau of Engineering City Engineer Gary Lee Moore said.

Moore is still working on obtaining $18 million in matching funds for the Art Deco 6th Street bridge downtown, which is expected to cost $155 million to fix.

``The other bridges are in the $4 million range,'' Moore said. ``This is the big one. It's the longest bridge span we have.''

Moore said he believes the city has made good progress on retrofitting the bridges.

``We continue to inspect the bridges to make sure they are safe to travel on,'' Moore said. ``We are working expeditiously to finish the remaining bridges.''

The ones that have been fixed are designed to withstand a 7.0 Richter or lesser earthquake, the Caltrans standard.

``You may get a little cracking, but you don't want a collapse,'' Moore said. ``If you look back at the Northridge Earthquake, we had no collapses on city-owned bridges.''

Still, Moore said it's going to take four to five years to complete the work on the remaining bridges.

``There is a possibility during an earthquake that bridges will be damaged,'' Maller said. ``But you have to understand that we've had a bunch of earthquakes in the past and these bridges weren't damaged. So the question is, 'Do I take care of this pothole here or this bridge somebody says might be damaged in an earthquake, but has survived many earthquakes without damage to it?'''

After the 1989 state mandate that bridges be analyzed, the county Department of Public Works identified 740 bridges that could fail during a major earthquake.

A more detailed analysis since then reduced the number of bridges that require retrofitting to 249.

Since then, the county has overseen the bridge work in almost all cities in the county, except Los Angeles.

Of the 249 bridges needing retrofits, 165 have been reinforced, two are under construction and 82 are in the design phases.

Of the 82 bridges under design, the county has commitments for local funding matches on 33 of them, including six in unincorporated areas.

Construction on those is expected to begin within a year.

``The six bridges the county is committed to upgrading in the unincorporated areas are mostly in rural areas, and as such are awaiting regulatory and environmental approvals due to the location of the bridges,'' Public Works Department spokesman Ken Pellman said.

The remaining 49 bridges are waiting for local funding match commitments from the cities where the bridges are located.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com