LOS ANGELES — Lack of oversight by the California transportation agency has contributed to a devastating fire last year, that took up a vital section of a Los Angeles freeway used by hundreds of thousands of commuters, according to a state audit.
Although authorities determined the fire was arson, the California Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General said the agency had conducted required annual inspections of properties under Interstate 10 only five times in 15 years and had failed to had succeeded in fully documenting these inspections. When Caltrans discovered problems, it didn’t act.
“Caltrans could – and should – have done more to make this property safer for the motoring public traveling above,” said the report released last Thursday.
Caltrans said in a statement that it has implemented new safety measures since the fire and also suspended new parcel leases 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 agency said in a statement.
Flammable materials were illegally stored on the land under the highway, which Caltrans leased to the private company Apex Development Inc, the report said. The fire burned through about 100 columns, spread across what authorities described as the equivalent of six football fields and forced the closure of a mile-long stretch of I-10 near downtown LA.
Officials had estimated that the initial repairs, which were expected to be covered by federal funds, would cost $3 million.
It was discovered during the few inspections Caltrans conducted of the property multiple hazards including multiple stacks of wooden pallets, stacked high and flammable materials such as solvents, oil fuels and more. Apex also illegally rented to six other companies, the agency alleges in a lawsuit filed before the fire.
There were also “previous warning signs” that Caltrans failed to respond to, including a massive freeway fire in Atlanta in 2017 under Interstate 85, the audit said. In this incident, construction materials stored under the viaduct were set on fire, causing a 30-meter stretch of the highway to collapse.
In 2022, another fire broke out in a space beneath the Los Angeles freeway, right next to the area that caught fire last fall, which “did not appear to trigger any significant response from Caltrans nor evoke any sign of urgency to address the issue.” to prevent new fires.” no fire will occur,” the report said. After that incident, it took the agency four months to conduct an inspection.
According to the report on the 2023 fire, Caltrans said it is “somewhat limited in its ability to act on its own when necessary due to differing laws between landlords and tenants and its own limited expertise.”
The audit recommended Caltrans conduct regular inspections, train staff to identify lease violations and streamline the approval process to determine when to take legal action.
Caltrans has 60 days to develop a corrective action plan and is asked to provide an update every six months until all issues are resolved.