Temecula Lawmaker Seeks Executive Action After Bridge Collapse

Photo courtesy of CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Dpt.

By City News Service

A Riverside County lawmaker on Monday requested that the governor sign emergency orders directing that all work to replace a section of Interstate 10, which disintegrated during a weekend rainstorm near Desert Center, be spared environmental red tape to expedite the replacement process.

“Gov. Brown needs to declare a state of emergency to exempt the reconstruction effort from the California Environmental Quality Act,” Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Temecula, told City News Service. “There needs to be an expeditious schedule for this project.”

Stone said there was no time to waste replacing the collapsed span, which serves as a major transportation corridor for transcontinental shipments out of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Caltrans shut down a roughly 40-mile section of the interstate between state Route 177, just east of Desert Center, to Blythe.

“All of us in elected office understand the economic ramifications for business and industry of a closure like this,” Stone said. “We’ll do everything we can to mitigate the damage.”

According to the senator, the collapse highlights the tenuous condition of infrastructure throughout the state.

“It’s a warning sign when a one-day storm can cause major structural damage,” he said. “These types of debacles could cripple our state economy if we’re not careful. Hopefully, this got the governor’s and Legislature’s attention. Our crumbling infrastructure needs investment.”

Stone noted that the span that gave way had been designated in the National Bridge Inventory in 2014 as “functionally obsolete.” An estimated 27,000 motorists use I-10 between Coachella and Blythe daily, he said.

“Maintenance and repairs of California’s bridges and highways have been neglected far too long,” the senator said. “Millions of taxpayer dollars, approved by voters to build and maintain our bridges and highways, have been siphoned away to programs that have nothing to do with infrastructure, transportation or highway safety.

“I am calling on the governor and legislative Democrats to join with my fellow Republicans to support legislation that will ensure transportation tax dollars collected from hard-working California are spent where they are desperately needed.”

Sen. Bob Huff, R-Brea, has proposed two bills for statewide road improvements. The first, Senate Bill X1, would prohibit lawmakers from plundering transportation funding accounts to pay for other outlays. The second, SB X2, would strip cap-and-trade fee revenue from so-called “greenhouse gas reduction” projects and instead invest it in roads.

Sen. Jim Beall, D-Campbell, has proposed hiking the per-gallon excise taxes on fuel by 10 cents and increasing vehicle registration fees to pay for road improvements. His SB 16 is stalled in committee.

Stone pointed out that the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, of which he was a member for nearly a decade, reacted quickly when it became clear that a bypass road was needed alongside I-10 between Banning and Palm Springs.

In February 2012, a Caltrans project that ran overtime caused a 20-mile traffic jam that left some westbound motorists sitting on the freeway for seven hours.

The county initiated the “I-10 Lifeline Emergency Action Plan,” which calls for the creation of a frontage road that will allow motorists to exit the freeway in the event of a massive blockage in the San Gorgonio Pass. The project is still in development.

“In the absence of federal and state assistance, the county took the lead and secured funding for the bypass,” Stone said. “We recognized the need to protect the traveling public.”