Randell "Randy" Iwasaki is the Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Iwasaki manages the day-to-day operations of the Department, including an operating budget of almost $14 billion and 23,000 employees. From December 2004 until December 2005, he also managed the $8.6 billion Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program. In addition, he currently serves as Board Chairman of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America).
A licensed civil engineer, Iwasaki has been with Caltrans for more than 25 years, serving in a number of high profile engineering and management positions. From July 2004 to November 2004 Iwasaki served as the Department’s Interim Director where he was responsible for California's state transportation system, including more than 50,000 lane miles of state highways stretching from Mexico to Oregon and from the Pacific Ocean to Nevada and Arizona.
From August 1999 to July 2004, Iwasaki served as the Deputy Director for Maintenance and Operations, where he supervised nearly 6,000 maintenance employees and 1,600 traffic operations specialists. He was also responsible for a 14,000-piece equipment fleet and Caltrans' Research and Innovation Division.
During his career at Caltrans, Iwasaki has spearheaded a number of environmental engineering innovations. He was instrumental in the use of old tires in rubberized asphalt, the installation of LED red lights saving the state taxpayers more than $2 million a year in power costs, and conversion of the Caltrans equipment fleet to clean burning fuels.
Iwasaki serves on a number of national initiatives. He has been appointed as chair of the Technical Coordinating Committee for implementation of the renewal portion of the Strategic Highway Research Program, and is a member of a public advisory committee to the Congressional ITS Caucus. He also served on a National Academy of Sciences panel that looked at the impacts to transportation from global climate change, and co-chaired an effort to encourage the development and application of quiet pavement technologies to reduce highway noise in the United States.
Iwasaki earned his bachelor's degree in Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a Master's in Engineering from California State University, Fresno.
The single most important event occurred in the beginning of the year with Congress and the President signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). This bill was revolutionary in at least three ways. First, it recognized the importance of the role that transportation infrastructure plays in our economy. Second, it expanded national investment in port, freight rail, intercity rail, and high speed rail systems. Finally, it came at a time when funding for transportation projects that were under way around the country were in jeopardy of shut down due to the overall downturn in transportation fund… Read more
The American Recovery and Reinvestment and Act (ARRA) allocated approximately $2.6 billion in highway funding and $1.1 billion in transit funding to the State of California. To date, California has used these funds to create employment for more than 24,000 workers. We are currently using those funds to repave or rehabilitate over 400 center line miles of state highway system roadway, rehabilitate or replace seven bridges, and provide safety, operational mobility improvements at 13 other locations. We have demonstrated with the current ARRA that the State can deliver quickly on selected projects, generate employment and create longer-term economic benefits. Some of the major… Read more
The current debate that we are having over moving to a more performance-based transportation system is made possible largely because of advances in technology that allow us to collect better data to measure the performance of our transportation network. Advances in vehicle and infrastructure-based sensors and detection equipment, the broad use of GPS-equipped devices, and other intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and technologies provide us with the capability to collect real-time data in areas such as congestion levels and delays, multimodal travel time variability, roadway conditions, emissions and air quality, road safety, incident response times, vehicle miles traveled, and other performance… Read more
Public-Private Partnerships (P3) have a definite role in financing transportation infrastructure in the future. However, the role of P3s should be based on, and support, an overriding transportation infrastructure strategy. This strategy should be established on a firm foundation of a reliable transportation funding stream and effective performance management strategies that are used, monitored and reported for all transportation infrastructure investments—not just those implemented through one of the P3 models. It should also be recognized that P3s can take many forms. For example, in some respects, the traditional design-bid-build model is a form of P3 in that the construction of the… Read more
Progress has been made in California toward improving intermodalism, but a lot more can be done across the country through the next surface transportation bill. We're still being driven by a car culture and the now-aging infrastructure that was built around it. In these hard economic times, people want to take mass transit to cut down on the price of gas. Also, concern about climate change has driven people to mass transit. Nonetheless, funding for mass transit hasn't kept pace with need. Take, for example, the situation recently reported in my hometown by Sacramento Regional Transit (RT). While it experienced… Read more
In California, we are expecting very good things. Voters gave the go-ahead in November 2008 to the first and only contemporary high-speed train operating on dedicated right of way in the United States. This is a 21st century alternative for a state transportation system designed for the 20th century. This statewide venture is expected to transform the way people travel between cities in California, offering a choice of driving, flying or using high-speed trains. The system is expected to provide a new transportation option available to 90 percent of California residents. Riders will be able to travel from Los Angeles… Read more
The loss of human capital in the last few years is not unique to just transportation agencies. It is a trend across the board in both the public and private sectors, caused by the mass exit of the Baby-Boomer generation due to retirement. At Caltrans, we have prepared for this hit to the workforce through a comprehensive succession-planning program that prepares younger employees for a leadership role in every area of the department, from administration to executive-level positions. We collaborate with California State University, Sacramento, to provide quality curriculum. In addition, Caltrans supports mentoring programs, such as the Cypress… Read more
Related Link: http://www.itsa.org
