Assembly OKs Underground Metro Rail Link : Transportation: The state Senate receives a bill requiring the extension be built below ground in residential areas. Opponents say that would dry up rapid transit money.

The state Assembly passed and sent to the Senate on Monday legislation to require that a San Fernando Valley extension of the Metro Rail subway be built underground through residential areas of North Hollywood and Van Nuys.

The bill, supported by all Valley Assembly members, passed 48 to 14.

The opposition was led by San Gabriel Valley legislators.

Leading the opponents, Assemblyman Charles Bader (R-Pomona) said he was concerned that “to the extent we mandate undergrounding in the San Fernando Valley, it dictates that folks in the San Gabriel Valley will never see a rapid transit system” because no money will remain.

The bill passed Monday was introduced by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) to “provide peace of mind to residents” living near the Southern Pacific railroad freight right of way that traverses the Valley roughly parallel to Victory and Chandler boulevards.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission in March voted to build a mass transit system along the right of way from North Hollywood, the planned terminus of the Metro Rail subway from downtown, to the San Diego Freeway in Van Nuys.

Although the county commission voted to place the line underground in residential areas, Robbins and other Valley legislators contend that state legislation is needed to prevent the commission from changing its mind and building the tracks on the surface to save money.

Transit planners estimate that tunneling adds about $150 million per mile to the $70-million cost of building one mile of surface rail.

Under an 11-year rail construction plan approved by the commission in March, construction on the $1.3-billion Valley Metro Rail extension would not begin until 1996 and would be completed in 2001, the same year that Metro Rail is scheduled to reach North Hollywood.

Robbins’ bill would require that any rail tracks be underground between the Hollywood Freeway and Hazeltine Avenue, a distance of nearly four miles.

In 1989, a similar proposal was vetoed by Gov. George Deukmejian, who said it was an intrusion by the state into a matter that should be left to local authorities.

But Robbins said he is optimistic that Deukmejian will sign this year’s bill because the County Transportation Commission, which vigorously fought the 1989 bill, is supporting the bill passed by the Assembly on Monday.

The transportation commissioners said they decided to support the legislation because it would place into state law a decision they already had made, rather than tie their hands on a matter still to be decided, as was the case last year.