Cal Trans Engineers Reassigned Following I-10 Construction Debacle

An internal email from the Caltrans district director was leaked Tuesday to local elected officials. It said the engineers involved with the project have been reassigned.

The email was written on Monday by District 8 director Raymond Wolfe.

He sent it out to Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit and other elected officials, but Terri Kasinga, a Caltrans spokesperson, said it was confidential and not meant for the public.

In the email, Wolfe said that he was embarrassed by some of the mistakes made by his staff on Sunday.

For that and several other reasons, the resident engineer, which is the engineer is charge, has been reassigned to another project.

The same goes for the construction engineers, which is effective immediately, Kasinga said.

No one has been fired — just reassigned to other projects with the same job title.

There is an ongoing investigation into Sunday’s mess, according to kasinga.

The project started on Saturday, and was supposed to finish on Sunday morning, but didn’t because the concrete needed for repairs was late getting to the construction site.

“We’re not laying blame anywhere right now,” said Kasinga. “As a department, we are stepping up and saying that there was some issues that occurred that we’re going to take the heat for, and we’re going to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

On Monday, Caltrans issued a public apology to the public for the traffic mess.