Metro Rail Runs Into New Snag--Huge Boulders

Los Angeles’ Metro Rail subway project--originally scheduled to start carrying riders in April, 1992, and later rescheduled to January, 1993--will be delayed “several months” more, officials acknowledged Thursday.

Rapid Transit District officials, who announced the likelihood of more delays last Friday, have yet to pinpoint a new start-up date. But James E. Crawley, the RTD’s director of engineering on the project, told a meeting of the RTD board that the work schedule will be pushed back “certainly more than several months, certainly less than a year.”

The latest delays were attributed chiefly to subterranean encounters with unexpectedly large boulders, as well as trouble with soft soils, water and breakdown of tunnel-digging machinery. RTD Board President Gordana Swanson said the problems were “almost like acts of God--there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Bigger Than Expected

The size of the boulders is the main problem, Crawley said. Soil tests had anticipated such “cobbles,” he said, but “the magnitude of them has been greater than we expected.” Moreover, the tunneling machinery has performed below expectations, he said.

Despite the bad news, RTD officials presented an upbeat perspective on the project, saying the delays will have little financial effect. The 4.4-mile inaugural phase of Metro Rail--running from Union Station through downtown to MacArthur Park--remains $66 million under the $1.25 billion budget, they said.

Even so, delays have almost become tradition with Los Angeles’ subway project. Before construction began, there were bureaucratic snags. Local officials had originally hoped to break ground in the summer of 1985 with operations beginning in April, 1992. But as it turned out, the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration did not award the full funding contract for Metro Rail until December, 1985.

Although the actual ground breaking did not take place until September, 1986, RTD officials still pressed for the April, 1992, start date.

Opening Moved Back

Several months after the start of construction, however, the projected opening was moved back to January, 1993. Problems with land acquisition near Union Station and the discovery and removal of contaminated water in the area were blamed for that delay.

The first leg of Metro Rail--from Union Station to the planned station at 1st and Hill streets--remains the biggest obstacle to keeping the project on schedule, Crawley said. The contractors, a joint venture of Tutor-Saliba and S.J. Groves & Sons construction firms, have worked double shifts and weekends, but the “cobbles” still force the schedule to slip, he said.

The boulders, Crawley said, are a problem particularly for the probes that move ahead of the tunnelers, searching for subterranean gas pockets.

Another prime concern is the excavation between the 5th and Hill streets station to 7th and Flower streets. The contractors, the Shank-Ohbayashi construction firm, have had “extremely slow going” in the tricky effort of tunneling under major buildings, Crawley said. The process requires chemical treatment of soils to guard against settling of the buildings.

Despite the troubles, Crawley said he is encouraged by the progress of “a monumental task in a congested urban area. . . . The job is basically going very well. . . . A slip of some months will not be critical in view of the overall perspective.”