Bus Repair System Keeps Stalling

One day, computer-controlled robots will roam throughout a new, cavernous warehouse near Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, storing and retrieving the tens of thousands of parts needed to keep RTD’s 2,800 buses running.

Southern California Rapid Transit District officials hope that day will be May 1, but no one knows for sure.

Completion of the $87-million Central Maintenance Facility, which will house the high-tech system, has been plagued by increased costs and contract delays and may be stalled further by an unresolved dispute with a major contractor.

Nearly two years behind its original schedule, the project’s costs have increased by at least 20%.

RTD officials and representatives of the firm that is installing the high-tech warehouse system, Eaton Kenway Inc. of Salt Lake City, say they do not know when the system will actually be completed. Eaton Kenway computer engineers have been off the site for three months because of a dispute over equipment testing. Other contractors are still working in the area and, according to RTD officials, are getting in the way of Eaton Kenway’s robots, which need clear aisles for testing.

Replacing some workers, the fleet of cart-like “Go For” robots will wheel all over the 500,000-square-foot warehouse and bus repair garage, delivering mechanics everything from bolts to brakes and starter motors.

Robert Rose, an attorney representing RTD, said “we don’t know” when the issue will be resolved but lawyers were called in to try to avert “a legal problem.”

Rich Fullmer, project engineer for Eaton Kenway, declined to discuss specifics, but said the company hopes the issue will be resolved soon. Once the matter is settled, it should take four to eight weeks to complete Eaton Kenway’s work, Fullmer said.

Although RTD officials deny that it is related to the current delays, RTD and Eaton Kenway already are suing each other in federal court. RTD claims that Eaton Kenway failed to deliver what was required, a warehouse computer system that could communicate with other RTD computers. The district has claimed $735,000 in damages, much of it representing the cost of hiring another company to develop a computer link between the two systems.

Eaton Kenway claims it suffered damages because of delays by the RTD and others that prevented it from sticking to original schedules.

One of the major delays and cost increases in the project related to a separate court suit over land acquisition. Ultimately the land costs were about $35 million, nearly twice the original estimate.

More delays occurred when the RTD opted to scale back and redesign some of the project to try to offset some of the land cost increases.