Metro Rail Safety Features Accepted

Rapid Transit District officials Thursday agreed to extra safety precautions for the Metro Rail system, such as installing more devices to detect potentially explosive underground gas, that were sought by the City Council.

The RTD Board of Directors voted to agree to the recommendations made by an independent council panel set up to study possible hazards related to construction and operation of the $3.5-billion subway.

One safety feature sought would add devices to heavy equipment used for tunneling that would alert workers to the presense of underground gas.

Panelists also urged the RTD to study ways to detect potentially deadly methane gas and to prevent underground gas and water from leaking through subway walls.

Concern over the safety of 18-mile system linking downtown to North Hollywood flared up last year when seeping underground methane gas triggered a massive explosion at a clothing store in the Fairfax District.

Metro Rail planers were then forced to reroute the subway to avoid digging through the area. The City Council also threatened to withhold $34 million it was scheduled to contribute to the project if the RTD did not take extra safety precautions.

Construction of the embattled subway is scheduled to start this spring. Officials, however, are still involved in a financing battle with the federal government, which is providing more than half of the money for construction.

Safety recommendations by the 10-member panel apply to the route’s first 4 miles only, RTD spokesman Rick Jager said.

Jager said the RTD board had already agreed to the recommendations and that Thursday’s vote was only a formality.

The discovery of underground gas in the Fairfax district has forced the RTD to propose alternative routes that avoid tunneling through the area. The routes either elevate Metro Rail’s tracks over the neighborhood or make an arc around it.

Officials have already conducted public hearings on the alternates and are expected to decide on an alternative route in May.