November 1, 2003

Construction Industry Advancement Fund and CDTOA

Dear Trustees and CDTOA EC:

Following are some of the major issues your Industry Transportation Consultant has been dealing with to date.

Caltrans and all other agencies regarding reducible loads. We are requesting an evaluation of their current reducible load policy. The Industry would like to see Cranes to be able to tow a vehicle behind them to a jobsite, which would relieve the problem that they are facing with the Federal and State Hours of Service regulation. You can tow a vehicle behind the crane when you're legal, but using the same size crane except heavier, you not able to because of the permit that is needed. The Heavy Haul Industry has the same problem, if they want to haul a D8 Dozer on a 5 axle to the jobsite and then move a couple of scrapers when they arrive, they could if they could tow the empty dolly with them. If they weren't transporting the dozer they could legally tow the dolly with them. Soon as a permit is required the rules change, but the safety factor doesn't. We are requesting a change in this policy, which will be a huge savings.

LA County currently requires all crane permits to be subject to a manual review under their new permit program. You normally would be able to obtain a permit in a matter of seconds if you weren't a crane. Which means you're not able to order a permit during the weekends or at night, only when the permit office is open to have it manually reviewed. We have resolved that problem with the County and came up with a solution. The Computer program will be changed and cranes will no longer have to wait on permits.

LA County's future contracts regarding debris basin clean outs. The County will no longer have any language in the contract regarding obtaining permits from the cities within the route to dispose of the material during the clean out operations. The County may require a specific route to be used, with which everyone will be bidding the same. The County is going to take it a step further, they are going to meet and come up with an agreement with each city and work out a long term plan, even if it comes to them helping with the cost of upgrading these routes for future use. This all stemmed from the San Dimas Dam project and CW Poss.

LA County and I met with the San Bernardino County and Riverside County to propose their 24 / 7 on line permit program. The County of LA has offered to give this program to the other County's to help Industry with promoting Uniformity. We gave the County's a demonstration of the program and explained how it can save the County and our Industry a tremendous amount of money for years to come. This will cut their staff cost, which will allow them to work on other projects and allow our Industry to obtain permits without costly delays. Both Agencies were very receptive.

The City of Malibu has been over charging by charging $276.00 for a single trip permit and the C.V.C 35780 only allows them charge as much as Caltrans. We have requested a single trip to $16.00 as per the C.V.C. code.

The City of La Quinta has been requested to issue annual permits and has agreed. The City is currently under going a completed permit audit to redo their permit fee schedule for the entire city and then they will start issuing the permit.

The City of Indio has been requested to issue annual permits and to stop regulating legal truck traffic, by posting no truck routes signs, which stops through traffic from adjoining cities into the City of Indio. The City has agreed to a meeting to resolve the issues on November 7th.

The City of Rancho Mirage has been over charging the Industry for single trip permits for years.
They have charged from $50.00 up to $200.00 per single trip permit as they have done to Yeager Construction. The City is also requiring trucking companies to obtain a business license for $55.00 a year, which should not be required. I have requested that the City discontinue this practice and have a meeting scheduled with their Public Works Director on November 7th to resolve these issues.

An Industry member called with a problem within the City of Apple Valley. The City passed an ordinance to regulate legal trucks by eliminating trucks routes to 2 and only allowing truck traffic within the city from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. I contacted the city to inform them that they do not have the authority to regulate legal trucks. The City has put things on hold until they have time to check with their legal department and have put on hold the placement of the "No Trucks Signs". They are hoping to have the problem resolved within a couple of weeks.

The changes that have been made and those that we are expecting to make will benefit our Industry and significantly ease operation and reduce costs. The benefits will continue to accrue in months and years to come.

Sincerely,

Gregory D. Dineen
Industry Transportation Consultant

Cc: John Hakel, AGC; Seth Hammond, MCOG;
Barbara Cunningham, ECA; Lee Brown, CDTOA;
Richard Lambros, BIA; Jim Burton, SCCA