Traffic Engineers May Cause a Delay

A group of private engineers, the Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors ofCalifornia, sponsered an initiative for the November ballot which wouldfacilitate private contracting for state engineering and design projects. Theinitiative has created a furor with the engineers' opponents in the publicsector, their counterparts at Caltrans. The representatives from the state'sagency, Professional Engineers in California Government, oppose the measurearguing that it will cause bureaucratic delays of 18 months or more forupcoming transportation projects. Governor Davis' six year, 6.8 billion dollarfunding of traffic relief projects has exacerbated the debate in theLegislature. Though many argue that the ambitious project will provide morethan enough work for everyone, attempts by Democratic lawmakers to find anamicable solution failed last week when private sector engineers rejected aplan ensuring job protection for 10,500 Caltran employees in exchange forCaltrans contracting out up to 30% of design and engineering work to privatefirms.

Thanks to Laura Krafft