Caltrans takes training off the road
Stockton training center allows Caltrans workers to safely practice transit work
Caltrans recently opened a hands-on training center at its District 10 campus in Stockton, providing workers with a safe training environment free of the potential hazards of a busy freeway.
The center also allows Caltrans to conduct studies in an effort to be more cost efficient and environmentally friendly.
Safety is the main priority for Caltrans, and the training center helps minimize the time workers spend on the road.
“We have to be aware of safety all the time,” said Mike Magney, a Caltrans utilities manager.
The approximately 750square-foot center features several training stations, with remote irrigation currently a top priority. Other stations focus on planting, pruning, a cistern, as well as a station focused on how to safely open a secured backflow box.
“The training center cuts down time of exposure (out on the road). We want them to do their job and get out as quickly as possible,” said Bill Duttera, a landscape architect with Caltrans.
In one of the center’s displays, different landscaping materials such as rock and mulch are studied and analyzed. Inert materials are used partly for water conservation and to control weeds, said Maria Rocha, a Caltrans public information officer.
“We also have water conservation plants that don’t need much water or that insects can’t kill, or that are frost sensitive,” Caltrans maintenance manager Kent Kibble said. “Plants that work well in Southern California won’t work well here, where it can freeze in the winter.”
In the future, a chain-link fence may be added to the center, allowing workers to practice weaving a damaged fence together. Caltrans also tests landscaping and irrigation equipment at the center.
District 10, which stretches from Lodi in the north to Merced in the south, operates 114 remote irrigation controllers, with nine located in Lodi. The remote-access controllers can be accessed through either a desktop computer, a handheld device or smartphone, Kibble said.
But with the new technology comes a steep learning curve, Kibble said. The center provides such training for Caltrans employees.
“It’s not like going out on the road to an irrigation control and turning it on with a screw driver on the side of the road,” he said.
The RICS system (Remote Irrigation Control System) also enables Caltrans to control how much water it uses and where it is used, enabling workers to be more efficient. If it rains, sensors detect it and the irrigation shuts off automatically.
If there is a pipe break or excess water, the irrigation point will shut off and alerts are sent out. Staff monitor the system every day so they can check which irrigation point is shut off.
Before the center was built, training was conducted on the roadside.
“They had to train on the road, facing traffic, with a lookout for safety,” Kibble said. “We always have to be watching for errant cars, it’s constant. You have people driving off on the shoulders all the time.”
Workers are primarily trained on irrigation and landscaping, but the center also provides training on constructing guardrails as well as traffic control.
“It’s steadily evolving. The more you think about it, the more training you add,” said John Spithorst, a district landscape specialist.
Landscape training has been held about once a month, and recently workers from Sacramento came down for a joint training session.
“All functional units can use this facility and they can train in a noise free, hands-on safe environment,” Duttera said. “Everything they will see out in the field, it all exists here.”
The center has also focused on security measures to help prevent theft, mainly of wires and brass pipes, Kibble said,
“Since we’ve put in all these vandal resistant and theft-proof lids and devices we’ve gone from I don’t know how many millions of dollars (of theft losses) statewide, to one breakin since we installed them,” Duttera said. “Probably within the last year we’ve had zero.”
“The training center cuts down time of exposure (out on the road). We want them to do their job and get out as quickly as possible.” BILL DUTTERA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, CALTRANS