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Description
In the wake of the October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, Caltrans commissioned an oral history project to document the personal and professional experiences of Caltrans employees who worked to restore the State's damaged transportation system. At the time of the Loma Prieta Earthquake Kyle Nelson and Dave Paulson were Public Information Officers for Caltrans. This interview was done at the Caltrans District 4 office at 150 Oak Street. This is the second interview with Nelson, and in this interview he describes how he was scheduled to go to a meeting on Route 61/Route 880 study to alleviate congestion on the Nimitz Freeway. He heard over the radio about the Cypress Structure collapse and couldn’t get near the structure, so he assisted a Caltrans Maintenance crew setting out road flares to detour traffic away from the area. The next day, he went to the Cypress Structure and served as the Public Information Officer on site. Initially, he was giving press update every twenty minutes to deal with the constant demand for information from reporters. He also gave tours of the Cypress Structure to groups of media reporters and to engineers and seismologists who came from all over the world. After the first week at the structure, Dave Paulson, another Caltrans Public Information Officer came to help. Nelson spent almost three weeks at the Cypress Structure and then was assigned to work with ongoing projects to replace the damaged structure in downtown Oakland. Nelson also offers some of his reflections of what could be done differently for next time.
Type
sound
Format
Original Audio cassette
Extent
1 Tape of 1 00:49:00
Identifier
casadt_000191
Language
English
Provenance
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) California Revealed is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
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