Caltrans

Friday Fun: Caltrans Blows Up a Boulder!

A video released today by Caltrans shows a work crew blasting apart a boulder that threatened to fall onto Highway 101 near Crescent City. Who doesn't want to watch rocks exploding? With all safety precautions in place, of course.

By Melanie Curry

2:09 PM PST on February 6, 2015

blowinguprock — Who doesn’t want to watch (safely) exploding rocks? (Screengrab)

A video released today by Caltrans shows a work crew blasting apart a boulder that threatened to fall onto Highway 101 near Crescent City. Who doesn’t want to watch rocks exploding? With all safety precautions in place, of course.

Caltrans has been under pressure to change its bureaucratic, outdated culture since the 2013 creation of an agency to oversee it (the California State Transportation Agency, or CalSTA) and the publication of a damning report last year. Since then, the department has made many strides in the right directions, from publishing a new mission statement, to endorsing less constricting guidelines for street design, to creating the new position of Director of Sustainability.

The department also been attempting to communicate better with the public and the media, producing a newsletter, Mile Marker, about its achievements, as well as semi-regular “News Flash” announcements.

The latest News Flash is pure fun: Caltrans work crews decided to blow up a rock, and we get to watch.

Melanie Curry

Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry has been thinking about transportation, and how to improve conditions for bicyclists, since her early days commuting by bike to UCLA long ago. She was Managing Editor at the East Bay Express, and edited Access Magazine for the University of California Transportation Center. She also earned her Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley.

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