New Caltrans Audit Finds Agency Failed To Give Adequate Inspections Of Freeways

According to a new audit from the Office of the Inspector General for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) on the November 2023 Interstate 10 fire, a lack of oversight in freeway inspections put the Interstate 10 freeway in Los Angeles at a major risk, which helped contribute to the blaze last year.

The I-10 blaze occurred on November 12, 2023 in Los Angeles. The fire first began in the early hours of the day when a fire erupted at a wooden pallet storage yard near the I-10 freeway. The blaze quickly spread to 8 acres, with the interstate so damaged that steel guardrails and concrete pillars had begun melting. While the fire was ultimately contained by the LAFD and put out later in the morning with no injuries or loss of life, fire and transportation officials closed a portion of I-10 between the Alameda street exit and the I-5 interchange indefinitely.

In the following several days, Governor Newsom has declared a state of emergency due to the closure of a highway serving 300,000 people daily, Mayor Karen Bass has petitioned the U.S. Department of Transportations for repair funds, and Caltrans has set up detours around the damaged section. Governor Newsom soon announced that the cause of the blaze was arson, with repairs soon reopening the stretch months ahead of schedule. However, ongoing investigations pushed to look into how the blaze came to be, as many laws and regulations had been broken in the area for months with flammable materials being stacked underneath the bridge and homeless encampments being allowed to stay nearby.

This led to the Caltrans audit to be released this week. In the audit, Caltrans found that, for the last 15 years, they had generally eschewed giving annual inspections. In the past 15 years, only 5 inspections were given. As inspections had been ignored in the last several years, both flammable materials like pallets and other contributing factors were allowed to pile up without inspection. It also failed to act when some problems had been found. This led to the fire to be intentionally set and easily grow, with repairs costing $3 million in federal funds.

Caltrans partially blamed in audit

“Caltrans could have—and should have—done more to make this property safer for the motoring public who traveled above it,” said Caltrans. “We have implemented new safety measures and also paused new leases for lots to better protect the state’s highway system. Safety is Caltrans’ top priority, and the department takes the results of this audit report seriously.”

The audit also found that previous similar fires, such as a 2022 fire nearby the site of the 2023 fire, had not brought about an urgent response from Caltrans or started a more stringent inspection strategy.

Mark Wiley, an engineer who specializes in highway structures, told the Globe on Wednesday that “Whenever a fire like this happens, transportation authorities always try to blame someone else. While the property holder is partially at fault, along with the person who started the fire, Caltrans took some responsibility. These yearly inspections are crucial. They look for structural weaknesses, what needs to be repaired, and what dangers there are. They skipped out on most of them. They may not have pulled the trigger, but they sure as hell helped load the gun.”

“They need to bear some of the blame in this now. They need to get back to yearly inspections too, as it could have been much worse. No city ever wants to make national news by having their highway be on fire. And this could have shut down the highway for months or even caused loss of life. Caltrans lucked out all things considered with this one, and they need to take this audit as a huge warning.”

Caltrans is expected to release a corrective plan by early August, which is expected to, at the very least, restore yearly inspections.