Woo Cites Costs, Wants Metro Rail All Underground

Contrary to earlier beliefs, it would be nearly as economical to build the entire Metro Rail project underground as it would be to elevate portions of it in Hollywood and disrupt businesses, churches and residents, a Los Angeles city councilman said Thursday.

Councilman Michael Woo, who represents the Hollywood area, said that if new cost studies being prepared by the Southern California Rapid Transit District are accurate, then local and federal officials should rally behind a wholly subterranean system.

The preliminary RTD figures show a “negligible” difference in the cost of building an entirely underground railway versus the mixed underground/aerial track system now envisioned, said Albert Perdon, assistant RTD general manager.

Perdon said that final engineering figures will probably show that the difference in the competing schemes--once estimated at about $400 million--will actually be in the “tens of millions of dollars” in either direction.

Woo said he had not yet gauged political support for his all-underground plan, but conceded that many would be “skeptical.”

Confirmation Sought

Within hours, Woo’s prediction came true. Jacki Bacharach and Ray Remy, both members of a key Los Angeles County Transportation Commission panel closely monitoring the Metro Rail project, said they will want an independent confirmation of any new figures.

“It’s hard to believe that subway (construction) costs aren’t going to be higher than the aerial costs,” said Bacharach, who also is mayor pro tem of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Remy, meanwhile, said the cost revisions Woo cited need to be closely studied. Remy, who sits as Mayor Tom Bradley’s appointee on the commission, said he also is concerned that an all-subway scheme might hamper efforts to extend Metro Rail to the San Fernando Valley “in a timely fashion.”

The Metro Rail segment in question, about 9 miles long, would be constructed after completion of the 4.4-mile leg now being built under downtown Los Angeles streets.

Transit officials are still mapping the second leg. Several plans now under consideration--including one endorsed by RTD planners--envision continuing the Metro Rail line from MacArthur Park west along Wilshire Boulevard, then north along Vermont Avenue, then west along either Hollywood or Sunset boulevards to Highland Avenue and on into the San Fernando Valley. Current plans call for most of the Hollywood segment to be elevated.

Woo, joined by Councilman Nate Holden, said he generally supports the most popular route proposal now being considered, but wants the entire segment to move underground. Another basic change in the Woo/Holden proposal would substitute a subway station at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue for one now envisioned at the Hollywood Bowl several blocks north.

In pushing his all-subway plan, Woo said he earlier had supported a combined underground/aerial railway system because it was less costly. While drilling an underground tunnel is still more expensive than installing elevated tracks, Woo said, other factors have brought the two price tags considerably closer.

Woo said that acquiring the various businesses, homes and other private property now in the path of an elevated railway would drive the aerial plan costs much higher than first anticipated. He also noted that the subway project’s first leg is now on schedule and--so far--under budget, a factor that also argues for continuing underground for the second segment.

The various Hollywood plans with their elevated track schemes have become a political headache for Woo since they were first proposed. Sound-sensitive recording and broadcast studios along Sunset Boulevard, for instance, strongly objected that the railway would hurt their business, so transit officials altered the route to bypass them.

Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center, meanwhile, has argued that an elevated Metro Rail segment would require the demolition of one of its key facilities. The Self Realization Fellowship Hollywood Center and the First Baptist Church of Hollywood also would be disturbed by an aerial plan, Woo said.

Woo said that several hundred residents along an elevated route would also have to be relocated.

Moving the entire project underground, the councilman said, would eliminate these disruptions. Woo said that even if it turned out that an all-subway project cost somewhat more, he would support the increase “if it produces what I think is a better system.”

Any major change in the Metro Rail project’s second segment faces a battle against time. The Woo/Holden plan will come under scrutiny by a number of city and county agencies as well as the federal government, which is helping to underwrite the subway project. Final federal approval is required by Oct. 1.