After working for the state for 33 years, with the past six as director of Caltrans for District 5 on the Central Coast, Richard Krumholz retired Monday.

Statewide Director of Programming Rachel Falsetti will become interim director, as a search for a permanent placement goes forward.

Krumholz began his transportation career as a college student working summers for a highway construction firm in Illinois, according to a Caltrans news release. He graduated from Illinois State University in 1973.

He began his career with Caltrans in Eureka in 1979 as a junior engineering technician. Krumholz transferred to District 5 in San Luis Obispo in 1992, becoming district director in 2006.

He managed all Caltrans operations and 750 employees within the fivecounty Central Coast area.

Among the transportation improvements Krumholz helped to implement are:

• The Highway 1/17 merge lanes project in Santa Cruz in 2008.

• The Highway 101/Santa Maria six-lane widening in 2009.

• The Highway 101/41 Atascadero interchange in 2010.

• The Highway 46 widening, Phase I, completed in June.

• The recently completed Highway 101/Airport Boulevard interchange in Salinas.

• The $53 million Highway 101/Milpas-Hot Springs project in Santa Barbara, to be completed next month.

Caltrans said that during Krumholz’s tenure, ongoing construction projects on the Central Coast doubled and today stand at nearly $450 million.