CalTrans Fires Safety Tech Accused Of False Tests
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Department of Transportation says it has fired a technician who falsified safety tests and was responsible for seismic testing to ensure the safety of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
CalTrans spokesman Bart Ney said Monday that Duane Wiles and his supervisor, Brian Liebich, were terminated.
It comes a day after The Sacramento Bee reported that Wiles was accused of falsifying safety tests for a busy Los Angeles highway bridge and an Oakland freeway sign.
In 2006 and 2007, Niles tested the structural integrity of 13 buried concrete and steel pilings that hold up the tower for the $6.3 billion eastern span of the Bay Bridge. Caltrans says no safety tests were fabricated there.
Ney says Caltrans began investigating after the falsified tests were discovered in 2008.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
