By Scott Marshall and Malaika Fraley
Inside Bay Area (California)
Copyright 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
All Rights Reserved
OAKLAND, Calif. — Steps to improve safety in the Caldecott Tunnel followed soon after the 1982 fuel truck crash and fiery blast that killed seven people.
“We couldn’t get in until the next afternoon,” the 2,000 degree fire was so intense, said Ray Mailhot, superintendent of tunnels and tubes for Caltrans, a 38-year agency veteran and resident tunnel historian.
He walked in before the coroner.
“It was a very eerie experience,” he recalled. “Each step was a cushioned soundless ‘swoosh!’” as his foot sank up to the ankle in the ash that covered the roadway.
The entire tunnel looked like a dark, dank cave, with heavy damage in the easternmost third. Ash four to six inches thick covered its 3,810-foot length. Wreckage and unrecognizable human remains were scattered. Fluorescent lights and steel emergency phones had melted. Of the bore’s 2.5 million tiles — about five acres’ worth — more than 400,000 lay six to eight inches deep on the roadway.
Nothing like it has happened since. In all likelihood, it won’t happen again, Mailhot said.
In 1982, inadequate monitoring, lack of changeable message signs or signals at the entrance and inside and lack of communication between tunnel personnel and motorists contributed to the severity of the April 7 fire, the National Transportation Safety Board later concluded.
Today, signs warn drivers to slow for accidents. Wiring has been added for cell phone communication and more cameras allow operators to respond to emergencies quickly.
The biggest improvement came about five months after the fire, when then Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. signed a measure banning flammable-liquid tankers from the tunnel for 22 hours a day. They now can travel through it only between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
As a result, truckers now give the Caldecott a wide berth. That also reduces tanker traffic on Highway 24, Mailhot said.
All the fires that have occurred since have been relatively puny in comparison. Accidents do occur. A total of 165,000 to 175,000 motorists go through the tunnel daily, compared with 110,000 daily in 1981, according to Caltrans. The tunnel can see over 275,000 vehicles during special events.
“Truck traffic is, compared to other major highways, significantly reduced,” Mailhot said. “It as reduced because of the restrictions.”
Oakland and Moraga-Orinda firefighters cooperate more closely to respond to calls in the bores, which are mainly for vehicle and truck fires and accidents.
“We’ve always had an emergency procedure for the Caldecott Tunnel,” said Oakland Fire Deputy Chief James Williams. “The odds of having a truck explode now are nil. Now, we have other issues, such as terrorism.”
“We’re much more keenly aware of the dangers in that tunnel,” said Bryan Collins, a battalion chief with the Moraga-Orinda Fire Department.
Some of the dangers are beyond human control to prevent. For instance, the tunnel rises some 150 feet from the Oakland side to the Orinda side, and a natural eastward air draft travels uphill. That’s significant because heat and smoke from a fire would race toward the Orinda side as the firefighters race inward.
“It’s kind of like a chimney lying down,” Collins said.
Fire extinguishers and fire detection systems have been added, said Caltrans spokesman John Cunliffe. Water lines, known as “wet” standpipes, are available every 200 feet.
The tunnel always had some cameras, but more have been added since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, giving operators a view of what’s going on inside.
When the 1982 fire erupted just around the curve of the bore, tunnel operator Doug LaVallee peered in from the west side but could see only a flicker.
“When an incident happens now, we can see it quicker and respond quicker,” Mailhot said.
Operators watch all the bores from the tunnel control room. They know how fast vehicles are traveling at the entrances, inside and at exits. A panel shows when an emergency phone is picked up. Levels of nitric oxide and carbon dioxide, noxious gases emitted by vehicles, are monitored. Even if people are trapped inside for any length of time, a ventilation system pumps in enough fresh air to prevent illness for at least four hours, Mailhot said.
The tunnel does not have a sprinkler system.
“The thinking is that if the sprinkler system comes on, it creates more chaos,” Cunliffe said.
Speed is perhaps the tunnel’s most dangerous condition. The limit is 50 mph, but motorists have been clocked at 95 mph, Mailhot said.
Collapse never was considered a possibility before or after the 1982 fire. In fact, Mailhot said the tunnel is the safest place to be in California during an earthquake because its walls are so thick — seven feet.
The upcoming forth bore, which will start construction in 2009, will be even safer. Engineering has advanced by leaps and bounds since the last Caldecott tunnel — the site of the 1982 fire — was constructed in 1964.