Caltrans by the Numbers: Report Cards Shows District 7 is the Worst

In a state report card (.pdf) evaluating all the Caltrans districts, 7, which is responsible for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, has the worst grade. "It's actually kind of appalling," a staff member of Councilwoman Jan Perry's office said in an article from blogdowntown. Here's some of the breakdown:

• District 7 is responsible for over 6,200 lane miles, which carry 25% of statewide traffic.
• 900 maintenance workers are employed, meaning there is an average one worker for over a mile of freeway (there is 1,100 center line freeway miles).
• 9,000 acres of landscaped area are maintained by 171 landscape workers. That's 52 acres per employee.
• 7,622,324 square feet of graffiti removed district-wide last year, 4,479,674 of that was within Los Angeles
• "90% of the existing landscape on freeways in the City has reached the end of its useful life," writes Eric Richardson at blogdowntown.
• $8 million was spent in 2008 picking up 60,743 cubic yards of debris along the freeways, 14,438 cubic yards within the city.
• 599 camps were cleaned up, including 194 camps in the city.
• For each state evaluation performance level, district 7 received the worst grades