Transitway Work Hits a Roadblock

Caltrans found itself in dire need of a parking place for 130 tons of metal sprawled across the southbound lanes of the Harbor Freeway on Sunday morning, as the agency’s announced revolution in freeway building did not begin exactly as planned.

The big, blue-steel mold--called a truss--is half of a contraption that was supposed to be hoisted high above the freeway overnight as part of a project to build an elevated transitway for buses and car pools.

The truss system has been billed as revolutionary because--by assembling it only during Sunday predawn hours--it will allow concrete to be poured and set with the least disruption to 250,000 daily freeway commuters.

Not yet, though. Caltrans officials had promised that the freeway would be closed from midnight Saturday until 8 a.m. Sunday, a deadline that stretched until nearly 1 p.m. They blamed overly optimistic time projections by the contractor and maiden voyage glitches.

There are eight trusses that have been assembled near the Century and Harbor freeways interchange. They will be leapfrogged down the 10.3 miles of the transitway, from the Santa Monica Freeway to the Artesia Freeway. The innovative, $51-million project is due to be finished in 1994.

Caltrans engineer Mike Perovich was positive after Sunday’s glitches. “It’s just a matter of them (construction crews) being on a learning curve,” he said. “They’ll get better.”

Another official, who asked not to be identified, was not surprised that things went awry, saying: “I knew it was going to be a nightmare. It always is the first time around.”

By early morning it became clear that while the scaffold-like structure was in place on the southbound side, just north of the Slauson Avenue exit, there was no time to raise its counterpart because the freeway had to be reopened.

Driving the truss back to from where it came was vetoed because the dolly wheels were set to go only one way. The median beckoned, if not invitingly. Picture trying to park a minivan in a spot designed for a Honda Civic, or fitting the last sardine in a can.

After three hours of maneuvering, including partially dismantling the blue behemoth, construction crews did things the old-fashioned way--with sweat and muscle--while anxious Caltrans officials watched from the 54th Street overpass.

Even the owner of the construction company, C.C. Myers, was in the fast lane wielding a crowbar as he tried to bully a recalcitrant 8-ton portable freeway barrier into place. Turning to the other side of the freeway, Myers peeled off his sport coat to work in shirt-sleeves and suspenders to get the barriers, called K-Rails, into place. He then quickly left the freeway and could not be reached for comment.

“That’s clean enough,” one Caltrans official yelled to a worker, who was sweeping dirt on the freeway. “Traffic will blow it clean.”

Northbound lanes were opened at 12:30 p.m. Southbound lanes followed within half an hour. Traffic had been backed up four miles south and about five miles to the north.

Perovich said there is a 50-50 chance that the truss will remain in the median for up to two weeks, as subcontractors attempt to iron out the bugs.