2016 - VOL. 1

CONSTRUCTION PREVIEW - GREEN TEAM - VETERANS WORK FORCE - AND MORE...

Our MissionProvide a safe, sustainable, integrated and efficient transportation system to

enhance California’s economy and livability.

Our VisionA performance-driven, transparent and accountable organization that values its people, resources and

partners, and meets new challenges through leadership, innovation and teamwork.

Safety and HealthProvide a safe transportation system for workers and users, and promote health through active transportation and reduced pollution in communities.

Sustainability, Livability and EconomyMake long-lasting, smart mobility decisions that improve the environment, support a vibrant economy, and build communities, not sprawl.

System PerformanceUtilize leadership, collaboration and strategic partnerships to develop an integrated transportation system that provides reliable and accessible mobility for travelers.

Stewardship and EfficiencyMoney counts. Responsibly manage California’s transportation-related assets.

Organizational ExcellenceBe a national leader in delivering quality service through excellent employee performance, public communication, and accountability.

Integrity n Commitment n Teamwork n InnovationMarch 2015 - Job 0146

2016 - VOL. 1

COVER STORY

STORM DAMAGELearn more about how District 1 was

impacted by winter storms.

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FEATURE

CONSTRUCTION PREVIEWBrief overviews of 14 District 1

construction projects happening this years.

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REPORT

GREEN TEAMDistrict 1 employees volunteer to make

the District Office a better place.

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FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK Up to date information at facebook.com/CaltransD15 DIRECTOR’S CORNER 16 GRATITUDE FOR ATTITUDE 8 CAUGHT ON THE JOB 9 MUSICIANS LIFT SPIRITS 10 VETERANS WORK FORCE

11 SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE 12 OFF THE WALL 13 DAY IN THE LIFE 14 SAFETY IS NO JOKE NEAR LANDSLIDES 15 CLEAN CITIES SYMPOSIUM

ON THE COVER Submited photos of storm damage and repair work from early 2016.

Contractors work to stabilize U.S. Highway 101 at Cushing Creek just south of Crescent City in Del Norte County after slide activity damaged the roadway.

Mendocino County was hit hard with heavy rains by the Jan-uary storms. At one point, Route 1 at the Garcia River, Route 128 at the Navarro River, and Route 175 at the Russian Riv-er were all closed due to flooding. Small slides and downed power lines at multiple locations on U.S. Highway 101 caused delays in the north end of the county. On the lighter side, a large slide at the old Confusion Hill alignment generated phones calls asking if Caltrans was going to do anything about the slide as it went into the Eel River! The callers were told that Caltrans was letting the hillside “go back to nature.”

Lake County fared well despite the potential for erosion as a result of last summer’s fires. Reports of rocks in the road-way and a small slide on Route 175 were the most prominent issues.

The north half of the District incurred some dramatic storm damage. A slide on State Route 299 in Trinity County kept our Willow Creek Maintenance crew busy around the clock, resulting in a full closure of the highway for two days near Big Bar. Not long after that, another slide on Route 96 isolated Hoopa and Orleans from Willow Creek. The high-

way was closed for approximately 13 hours while crews worked to clear a lane and restore services in the eastern part of the District. Emergency contracts were issued for both slides, though the contract for the slide on State Route 299 was issued by District 2.

In Del Norte County, a section of U.S. Highway 101 at Cushing Creek gave way in mid-January; a large portion of the southbound shoulder collapsed after constant hillside movement underneath it began in late December. Emer-gency work has been ongoing ever since. Our Crescent City Construction office was able to restore two-way traffic to the highway a full day ahead of schedule, much to locals’ relief.

Another slide briefly closed northbound U.S. Highway 101 near Loleta in Humboldt County. Part of a hillside – includ-ing trees – came down onto the lanes and required traffic to be detoured onto local roads for nearly 7 hours.

Wind blew down several more trees near the Singley Road interchange on Route 101 during the evening commuting hours, which resulted in a northbound closure for a short time before crews were able to clear the roadway. •

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The $17 million paving project on Route 20 from Nice to Clearlake Oaks, which began last season, will be completed this season. The project includes traffic calming striping through Lucerne to help reduce speeds.

The $15 million Valley Fire emergency repair projects on Routes 29 and 175 will be completed this season. Since last September, Caltrans has removed thousands of damaged trees, replaced signs, fixed and replaced culverts, repaired guardrail, and restored a retaining wall. Pavement repairs will be completed this season.

The $200 thousand scour prevention project on Route 29 at Saint Helena Creek will begin. The project will place rock slope protection (RSP) under the north end of the bridge, and should be completed by the end of the season.

CONSTRUCTION PREVIEWThe $5.2 million permanent restoration project on Route 1 at Seaside Beach, which began last season, will be completed by this fall. The project includes a retaining wall to allow the roadway to be widened into two 12-foot-wide lanes with 4-foot-wide shoulders for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The estimated $18 million Peregrine Slides project on U.S. Highway 101, located near Frog Woman Rock, is anticipated to begin construction in the fall. This storm damage restoration project will construct retaining walls at two locations, improve drainage, and stabilize the highway. The project is anticipated to be completed in 2019.

The Willits Bypass mainline project on U.S. Highway 101, which began in 2013, will be completed by this fall [see completion preview in this issue]. The $300 million project, which includes mitigation, fish passages, and relinquishment ‘child’ projects, is constructing approximately six miles of new highway and more than a dozen bridges, including the 1.1 mile long viaduct over a floodplain.

The $3.6 million paving project on U.S. Highway 101 in Klamath has begun construction this season. The capital preventative maintenance project was awarded last fall.

The $5 million paving and high-friction surface treatment project on U.S. Highway at Cushing Creek began construction this season. The safety project was accelerated and scheduled a year early.

The $1.9 million storm damage project on U.S. Highway 101 at Patrick Creek that consists of a retaining wall and slope repair is expected to begin construction in 2016.

The safety improvement project on Route 96 at Vista Curve will improve roadway geometrics and widen the paved shoulders to four feet. Construction is set to begin this summer.

Permanent restoration projects on U.S. Highway 101 at Last Chance Grade will begin this summer, including the construction of a soldier pile wall as well as a soil nail wall. The work will help maintain a safe and traversable align-ment through this unstable area while Caltrans imple-ments a permanent solution.

The $3.5 million collision reduction project on U.S. Route 199 at Smith River will include the construction of a new viaduct and provide a curve with a larger radius, improved superelevation and wider shoulders. Construction is ex-pected to begin this season.

The $5.3 million paving project on Route 299 from the Blue Lake Overcrossing to the North Fork Mad River Bridge will continue construction. This capital preventa-tive maintenance project began late last year.

The $4 million project on Route 299 near Chezem Road will make safety improvements to curves. Construction is expected to begin this summer.

Lake County

Mendocino CountyDel Norte County

Humboldt County

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ArriveAliveNow.org

What do your Saturdays usually consist of? Sleeping in, picking up around the house, going out to breakfast, spend-ing time with your families, taking a weekend trip? While much of us are enjoying our days off, our maintenance crews are putting in long hours responding to emergencies.

On Saturday, January 16th, 2016, our District 1 Willow Creek maintenance crew left their families and headed out to State Route 299 about 25 miles east of the Trinity/ Humboldt county line. When they arrived on scene, they knew they weren’t going home any time soon. The hillside had crum-bled into the roadway and was continuing to move. Crews immediately closed the highway and took turns standing in front of the active slide watching for falling boulders so oth-ers could start to clear the road. They continued putting their lives at risk and working around the clock for several days until District 2 hired a contractor to begin a massive cleanup project.

Just twelve days later, that same crew was called out once again to respond to a massive slide on State Route 96. This ac-tive slide isolated Hoopa from Willow creek for 2 days, closed down local schools, and created a five hour detour for Hoopa residents.

All 22 of our District 1 maintenance crews should be ap-plauded for their, especially during storms and conditions that most anyone would find difficult to work in. But our Willow Creek crew stands out this past winter because of their positive attitudes and the compliments they have re-ceived from the public. (We received hundreds of comments on social media and calls from motorists thanking the crew for the pride they have in their work, their positivity, and their helpful demeanors, even after working incredibly long and demanding hours. )

So, to our Willow Creek Crew… Mike Klemp, Jamie Kelly, Rodney Tavares, Donald Warren, Larry Jordan, Troy Bra-nham, Timothy Hunt Jr., Jeffrey Smith, Eugina Yarbrough, Peggy Harnden and Carlson Kane, we would like to recog-nize each and every one of you and tell you how grateful we are for your great attitudes and representing our district in such a positive way. •

ratitudeAttitudegfor

BY BETSY TOTTEN

DIRECTOR’S CORNERWITH CHARLIE FIELDER

Spring has arrived, but we continue to receive record rain-fall due to the El Niño event. Despite these continued winter conditions persisting for most of the State, District 1 is man-aging the storms with success. We have had some highway closures, but our forces in the field have been quick in re-opening the roadways to minimize traveler delays. We have executed several Director’s Orders that allowed contractors to come in with additional resources, giving our dedicated Maintenance crews the ability to focus on other locations. The areas with the greatest damage have been in Del Norte County, costing over $16 million with a majority of the work at Last Chance Grade on Highway 101. Humboldt, Mendoci-no, and Lake Counties have also experienced major damage and temporary route closures due to flooding, falling rocks, and landslides. The extensive emergency restoration work completed last fall in Lake County following the Valley and Rocky Fires has performed well during winter’s rainfall. To date, there has not been a State or national emergency proc-lamation, but that could change depending on future events. The work performed by Maintenance, Construction person-nel, and private contractors is heroic and greatly appreciated by everyone who relies on transportation.

During the months of April and May, Caltrans employees will be participating in Safety Awareness activities, which in-cludes safety meetings and the annual Highway Worker’s Me-morial ceremony at the State Capitol in Sacramento on May 5, 2016. We are also holding our Highway Worker’s Memori-al here in District 1 at the Eureka District Office on Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 10 AM. Field maintenance will be holding a Safety Stand Down meeting in Eureka following the Worker’s Memorial event. Construction staff will also be meeting that same day for the annual Resident Engineers meeting. Work-er safety will be discussed at each of these events and ideas shared on ways to protect the public and our workers. Safety is our top priority and we strive to maintain a safe workplace. Please take the time to participate in a safety meeting and continue to always look out for each other. Take the time nec-essary to perform your duties safely so we can all go home at the end of the day.

A reminder that Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22nd. Please join me and the District 1 Green Team in mak-ing a difference by reducing waste and increasing our effi-cient use of resources. This is an important part of our mis-sion in providing a safe, sustainable, integrated and efficient transportation system to enhance California’s economy and livability.

Together, 2016 is going to be an outstanding year for all. •

- Thank you

*See the following link for sustainable ideas to reduce waste and save energy:

http://district1.onramp.dot.ca.gov/caltrans-district-1-green-team

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Safety is No Joke Near Landslides

BY DAN RAMIREZ

The Bridgeville Maintenance Crew had to remove a rather sizable boulder from the side of Route 36.

Bridge inspectors evaluate a viaduct on State Route271 just south of Piercy in Mendocino County after

the ground underneath the viaduct began to erode in late December.

Another view of the imperiled dump truck from the Fort Bragg Maintenance Yard, which was impacted by a landslide while responding to an existing slide nearby. See “Safety is No

Joke Near Landslides” by Dan Ramirez on page opposite to learn more.

CAUGHT BY OUR CREWS: Maintenance Photos

Our field maintenance crews are very accustomed to cleaning up slides, both statewide and in District 1. On March 11, mem-bers of the Fort Bragg Maintenance Crew were preparing to clean up a small slide on State Route 1 north of Fort Bragg at PM 82.10 at about 3:00 a.m. This slide was very routine and fairly minor. The events that occurred next show how unpredictable and dangerous slides can be, even ones that look comparatively small.

At 5:15 a.m., the hillside which produced the initial 50-yard slide, fractured above the highway and approximately 3,000 yards of rock and dirt started to slide. This in-and-of-itself would be fairly routine. What was not routine was that one of our Equipment Operators (who wishes not to be identified) was driving a 10-wheeler under the slide when it decided to come down. Photos of the event show how close our Operator came to going over the railing and falling 300’ to the ocean. Thankfully, our employee was a little shaken up but otherwise alright. The crews had done everything right, and they were preparing to clean up the slide once it was daylight and they could determine the stability of the slide. Even with the precautions that the crew had taken, we came very close to losing another family member. (Thank goodness that someone was watching over our Operator that day and everything turned out fine.)

This event reminds us of another tragic event that involved a slide. On January 25, 1983 on Hwy 299 in District 1, Caltrans Equipment Operator William Abarr (from Willow Creek Maintenance) was not as lucky as our Fort Bragg Oper-ator. On the morning of January 25th, William was just finishing his night shift working on a active slide at TRI-299-2.1 in a loader. William and two others had been working to keep Hwy 299 open all night. Tragically, a charge of material came down and swept Wil-liam and the loader over the bank in to the Trinity River, fatally injuring him.

Both of these events illustrate how dangerous and un-prediactable working under slides can be, even when we take all the precautions we can. Remember to always de-termine the stability of a slide before working on it, and also folow our Code of Safe Operating Practices.

Whether our field crews are cleaning up slides, opening drains, or removing hazardous trees during a wildland fire - we need to make sure that we are always looking out for each other’s safety. •

A Fort Bragg Maintenance Crew member had a close call when a landslide impacted his vehicle while he responded to another slide on State Route 1 in Mendocino County in early March.

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When a landslide closed Route 299 at Big French Creek near Big Bar in Trinity County on Saturday, January 16, travelers settled in for a delay while Caltrans crews tried to clear a lane to get traffic moving. As District 1’s Willow Creek Mainte-nance crew looked for a way to safely remove debris, motor-ists got out of their cars to stretch, chat with one another, and find out more about what was happening on the road ahead. Minutes passed, then hours.

“Our first thought was just ‘Oh, let’s take some photos,’” Ian Scarfe said, recalling the experience shared by the Trinity Alps Chamber Players. The musicians had been en route to a free concert at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka when the landslide nixed their plans for the evening.

“It was such a beautiful setting. We got all fancied up, we put our ties on, and a lot of times musicians get their instru-ments out for photos,” Scarfe explained. “We figured that since we already had the instruments out, we might as well play some music. There were enough travelers out and walk-ing around that we knew we’d have a captive audience.”

The group played pieces arranged for a string quartet. Since not all of the musicians in the group play string instru-ments (Scarfe, for example, plays piano), some of the Cham-ber Players distributed handbills to the impromptu audience.

Mary Vellutini, a motorist who was at the slide that Satur-day afternoon, told local reporter Kym Kemp (whose news website - kymkemp.com - covers Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties) that the musicians never asked for dona-tions. “I got the feeling that they wouldn’t have taken them. I’m pretty sure it was just a spontaneous moment. It felt like a gift,” Vellutini said.

Scarfe clarified that the group performs for free at venues around Northern California, but that they do accept dona-tions. “Sometimes you’ll have someone who wouldn’t buy a ticket to the concert because maybe they’re on the fence about it, but if it’s free and they appreciate the music, some-times they’ll donate more than what a ticket would have cost,” Scarfe explained.

This was the first time the Trinity Alps Chamber Players had encountered a slide on their way to a performance, but certainly not the first time they’d encountered adverse condi-tions on the rural mountain highway. Being based in Trinity County, the devastation of the lightning fires of 2015 quite literally hit close to home for the musicians.

Even though the elements eventually forced Caltrans to turn motorists around at the slide and send them back the way they came, the musicians’ performance helped to make the best of a frustrating situation. Vellutini detailed on Face-book that even though her 3-hour trip turned into a 10-hour ordeal, the performance lifted her spirits. “I ended up having to backtrack and drive four more hours,” she said. “I smiled most of the way.”

The Trinity Alps Chamber Players are a part of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, which Scarfe started five years ago. Their spring concert series is currently being planned, but no dates have been set yet. For more information about the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, visit their website at http://www.trinityalpscmf.org/. •

MUSICIANS LIFT SPIRITS, COMFORT STRANDED MOTORISTS AT 299 SLIDE

BY ELI ROHL

This summer was punctuated with a series of lightning fires that affected highways throughout Northern Califor-nia. The drought turned forested areas into tinder boxes that burned right up to the highways, often jumping over the roads to burn ferociously on the other side. Culvert piping melted; guardrail was found lying at the side of the highways with only burning holes where posts used to keep the barriers in place. Throughout it all, Caltrans Maintenance patrolled their areas looking for motorists to help, surveying the dam-age, staffing road closures, and working to keep people safe.

Brian Brown Buchanan is the president of a non-profit or-ganization called Veterans Work Force, Inc. Veterans Work Force brings veterans together to provide services for other veterans, and to help bridge the gap between active duty and civilian life. Buchanan contacted Caltrans at the height of fire season. “Everyone thanks the firefighters, thanks the law enforcement – and I’m not saying that they don’t deserve it – but nobody thanks the Caltrans workers that are out there around the clock keeping us all safe,” Buchanan said during his initial contact with Caltrans. “What about your people? Who’s getting them warm food and dry socks? How are they charging their phones to let their families know they’re al-right?”

Buchanan loaded up a trailer with snacks, drinks, socks, and more. He hauled it all out to crews working the highway closures to provide Caltrans Maintenance crews with some measure of comfort while they worked in the intense heat and smoky conditions.

“I brought a big pack of peanut brittle out to one of the Caltrans crews last time,” Buchanan recalled. “One guy came up to me and hugged me, and I swear at one point I was sure he was going to pick me up and spin me over his head he was so happy.”

His generosity – and the generosity of Veterans Work Force – didn’t stop there. During the El Niño storms that have in-undated District 1 with heavy rains for the past two weeks, Maintenance has responded to downed trees, flooded high-

ways, and landslides. Some incidents have resulted in long-term closures, such as a large slide on Route 299 in Trinity County which Districts 1 and 2 have been working to clear for the better part of a week. Maintenance has had crews staffing traffic control around the clock. Buchanan loaded up his trailer again, and made sure that the Caltrans crews on-site were well taken care of with hot soup, cookies, and more.

Maintenance leadership made sure that everyone got a chance to get something warm to eat or drink while they worked in the less-than-stellar weather, and to thank Bu-chanan and his wife, Meredith, for donating their time and resources to making our Maintenance crews’ day a bit bright-er.

“Most people have no idea how hard your job is,” Buchan-an wrote in a letter to Caltrans, which was posted to the Vet-erans Work Force Inc. Facebook page. “To protect the drivers that were on [Route] 299, you posted two-to-three people to make sure nothing fell on the drivers as they passed your slide site… Your staff kept their eyes wide open to stop any-one from getting in the path of giant rocks.”

Buchanan compared Caltrans Equipment Operators to Mozart, saying that “all the movements of the loaders and trucks were so fluid and perfect. As fast as the materials came down the hillside, it was removed.”

“The traffic control specialist always kept the commuters informed as to why they were waiting,” he added. “Smiles and communication kept the drivers at ease… As they did this, they never lost sight of the big picture: SAFETY.”

Caltrans is well and truly taken aback by the generosity and the gratitude exhibited by Brian and Meredith; what they’ve done for our crews is so far beyond the scope of what anyone might expect that there just aren’t words to thank them in return.

“I wish I had a ‘go-to-the-front-of-the-traffic-queue card,’” District 1 North Region Maintenance Superintendent Wel-don Hailey said. “[The Buchanans] deserve it.” •

VETERANS FORCE

Members of the Trinity Alps Chamber Players put on an impromptu performance at the side of State Route 299 near Big Bar.

Meredith Buchanan helps unload the VWF vehicle at the side of SR 299.

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Off The Wall - Excerpts from Facebook

Social Media Update

District 1 is continuing to grow its online presence through social media. The Caltrans District 1 Facebook page (facebook.com/CaltransD1) has nearly 17,000 loyal followers who’ve helped our stories from District 1 get picked up by national news. In addition, District 1 is launching its own Instagram account, and has repurposed its Twitter account to more closely mirror its content on Facebook.

Recently, a story from the Mendocino coast went viral (see pg. 7). A Fort Bragg Maintenance Equipment Operator was repo-sitioning a 10-yard dump truck at the side of a landslide north of Westport when a second, completely separate slide came down a hill and impacted the side of his truck. The truck was almost pushed off the roadway by the slide, but came to rest against some bridge railing that prevented it from tumbling over the side of the highway to the beach below. The post was shared hundreds of times within the first hour, and major news agencies began calling shortly thereafter. To date, the posts that showed the truck’s precarious position on the roadway have been viewed by more than 1.2 million people. Not bad for a Caltrans District with only 312,000 residents spread across four counties, right?

While the other platforms get up to speed (we’re still experimenting to see what kind of posts do better on which social net-works), we highly recommend following Caltrans District 1 on Facebook. Help us spread the word about our other accounts by following @CaltransDist1 on Twitter and Instagram! •

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At a very early age, Josh Runnion set his sights on life as an engineer sky-high – literally.

“One of my fondest childhood memories is watching my grandfather Milton build a small observatory,” said the Struc-ture Representative out of Del Norte County. “The plumb bob, the level, the mason lines crisscrossing in disciplined perfection -- I was fascinated. It all seemed very important and somehow magical. One might say the project baptized my imagination. From there it has been a lifetime of watch-ing, questioning, and working at various forms of building and engineering.”

At Caltrans, Runnion is entrusted to ensure various struc-tures ranging from buildings to bridges are built properly. He also conducts structure-related emergency response, works with contractors to ensure public safety, collaborates on construction projects, participates on project development teams, provides constructability reviews, and provides tech-nical expertise on structure construction related issues.

“In 2008, I was introduced to Leonard Fiji, the Bridge En-gineer for District 1,” he said. “At the time I was working for a small engineering firm in Del Norte County as a Project Engineer. Fiji was great. He was enthusiastic about his work and he loved building structures. He convinced me Caltrans, and the Office of Structure Construction (OSC) in particular, would be a challenging and exciting place to work.”

Runnion was born in New Orleans and grew up in Moor-park, California, working in various construction trades be-fore going on to graduate from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo with a degree in Civil Engineering. Before starting at Cal-trans, he was a structure designer for residential buildings,

doing a fair share of inspection, surveys and other miscella-neous civil engineering work.

Currently a father of three (with another due soon), Runnion and his wife of fourteen years, Christy, helm a church-going family that enjoys sports, outdoor recreation, reading, and television.

“My hobbies lately?” he said. “Legos, Nerf wars, board games, and reading existential books such as ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ and ‘The Essential Calvin and Hobbes.’ I also have a respectable collection of ‘Berenstain Bears’ books.” In his limited free time, Runnion enjoys exercising, fishing, playing piano, and kayaking, “though usually not simultaneously.”

“It’s the people that I enjoy most about my job,” he said. “Caltrans has a remarkable depth and breadth of experience in every facet of engineering. Have a nagging question about AASHTO soil classifications? Call June. Need to know the maximum allowed tension steel in bridge soffits? Call Man-ode. Bird or bat issue? Call Jim. We are all well trained to do our jobs. And, if I may, especially when it comes to OSC. OSC trains its employees extensively, investing both time and money to ensure we are the best at what we do. We partici-pate in a yearly winter training and attend a bridge design academy that is second to none. In the private sector, you just don’t get this kind of commitment to the employee. People don’t share information as freely, keeping skills close to the chest to ensure that next promotion. But here at Caltrans, everyone is happy to give you their opinion and share their knowledge -- even when you don’t ask for it! Fiji once told me OSC would be exciting, enjoyable, and challenging. He was right.” •

DayLifein

the

BY MYLES COCHRANE

How often do you use the recycling bins around the build-ing? The Caltrans District 1 Green Team did that. Did you borrow one of those nice ceramic plates to stuff your face with food on Goodie Day? That was all thanks to the Green Team, too. If you’ve ever thought, “You know, I wish [busi-ness practice X] wasn’t so wasteful,” the Green Team might be the right place for you.

According to members of the Green Team, their goal is to improve efficiency and reduce Caltrans’ ecological foot-print by making small changes to office habits or practices. “We can’t make policy changes,” Facilities Coordinator Josh Wilkinson said, “but we can try to influence peoples’ behav-iors and habits to make everything better for the building.”

Given the time-consuming (but widely beneficial) nature of the work the Green Team does, Caltrans District 1 Director Charlie Fielder has authorized members of the Green Team to charge two hours of reported time per month to overhead charge codes in order to undertake the Team’s eco-friendly tasks.

“It’s nice, because the team members don’t have to give up their lunch hour or their breaks to help improve our work environment,” Wilkinson explained.

“We’re coordinating an Earth Day event,” said Green Team member and Local Assistance Office Chief Suzi Theiss. “We’ll be doing an E-waste event sometime soon. We’ll set that up with Facilities – it’s just a place where people can bring in

their E-waste from home and drop it off for free.”“We have a pretty small group right now, so it would be

really nice to get some more volunteers to add their energy and interest to help pursue getting some of these things taken care of,” Theiss added.

“One of the ideas we’re tossing around for our next project is a vermiculture (or worm) bin,” Transportation Planner Jes-se Schofield explained. “Basically, it’ll give us an option here at the office to compost any food that people bring in. What-ever they throw away – like apple cores, what have you – we can collect it and toss it in the worm bin to create some really cool top soil that people could take home or use for their of-fice plants.”

Employees who want to join the Green Team can speak with any Green Team member to be looped in on Green Team happenings, such as the group’s monthly meeting. Team members will also have access to a Microsoft OneNote document to share ideas and collaborate; the document will be shared on the District’s S: drive.

“In the past, we’ve had suggestion boxes,” Wilkinson said. “The idea with OneNote is that it’s on your computer, it’s easy to access, you don’t have to walk upstairs… it’s just right there.”

The Green Team last met on February 18th. To get more information about the Green Team, or if you’re interested in attending a meeting, contact Suzi Theiss at extension 6399. •

Structures Engineer Josh Runnion in the field near a retaining wall at Last Chance Grade on U.S. Highway 101 in Del Norte County. Green Team Improves Efficiency,

Reduces Waste at District 1 Office

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Edmund G. Brown Jr.GovernorState of California

Brian P. KelleySecretaryCalifornia State Stransportation Agency

Malcolm DoughertyCaltrans Director

Charlie FielderCaltrans District 1 Director

NEWSLETTER STAFF

Betsy TottenChiefPublic Information Office

Phil Frisbie, Jr.Public Information OfficerLake and Mendocino Counties

Myles CochranePublic Information OfficerHumboldt and Del Norte Counties

Eli RohlMultimedia Public Information Officer and Photographer

Jose MorenoGraphic Design

Caltrans District One

DELNORTE

HUMBOLDT

MENDOCINO

LAKE

Caltrans got a chance to show off two of its low carbon emis-sion vehicles at the Redwood Coast Energy Authority’s North State Clean Cities Symposium at the Humboldt County Of-fice of Education on February 25.

The symposium, which was simulcast to audiences in Uki-ah and Redding, sought to gather local stakeholders to work together in a concerted effort to reduce petroleum consump-tion in accordance with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program. Symposium presenters included the RCEA, the Blue Lake Rancheria, CivicSpark, the co-director

of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California in Berkeley, and more.

Caltrans brought its Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf fleet vehicles to the event, and spoke with attendees about the many benefits and challenges of using the low-emission vehi-cles on the North Coast. One of the challenges facing drivers of electric vehicles in District 1 is an underdeveloped infra-structure for their vehicles; something which many organiza-tions hope to change and are actively working to improve. •

Caltrans Shows OffGreen Wheels atClean Cities Symposium

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© 2015 California Department of Transportation