The May meeting featured Chief Deputy Director of Caltrans, Rick Land.  Rick oversees the internal operations of Caltrans and is second in command to Malcolm Dougherty.  For the first time, the 20,000 employees of Caltrans are being led by two Professional Engineers!   Mr. Land gave a brief summary of his 34 years at Caltrans, where his career has been focused primarily on transportation improvement projects.   His prior duties included the State Bridge Engineer and the Chief Engineer/Deputy Director for Project Delivery.  Rick gave a sobering synopsis of the funding crisis facing Caltrans, where $538 billion of required funds to serve transportation needs over the next 10 years, but only $243 billion of funding is presently available.  As vehicles become more fuel efficient, much needed funding provided by gasoline taxes are being negatively impacted.  To address the funding issues, Mr. Land is focusing on risk management within the department, with a major emphasis on efficiency to make more effective use of the dollars available.   Rick also gave us a debriefing on the topical Bay Bridge Bolt issue, which had been making headlines in the press during the days leading up to the May meeting.  The failed bolts would only have come into play during a major seismic event.  The bolts, many of which cannot be removed, are being retrofitted with a bracket system which will add several million dollars to the Bay Bridge price tag.