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