Puncture Juncture : Bolts on Water Pipes Along Streets Are Slashing Tires

The latest Hollywood slasher production is getting rotten reviews.

It is a four-mile network of temporary pipes placed in curbside gutters along both sides of Beverly, Melrose and La Cienega as part of a Los Angeles city water project.

Trouble is, bolts that hook the pipe sections together are slashing unsuspecting motorists’ tires left and right.

On the right, at least.

Dozens of drivers have suffered passenger-side blowouts when they pulled next to the curb to park and their tires rubbed against the bolts.

“I backed in and my tire just exploded,” said Amy Grey, a Hollywood television publicist whose 1990 Honda became a pipe victim the other morning when she stopped at a Beverly Boulevard cafe for a cup of coffee.

Counting the $67 cost of a replacement tire, “it was the most expensive cup I’ve ever bought,” Grey shrugged.

“The triple-A guy I called said he helped 15 people whose tires were ruined on Beverly during the weekend. The tire shop guy I went to said he’d seen seven tires like mine over the last few days.”

Auto Club towing service dispatcher Chris Sarem said he received five blowout calls during the first four days of this week.

Arshak Sertyan, manager of a Mark C. Bloom tire store on Beverly Boulevard, said the pipe slashings have pumped up his business, too. He said the tires are sliced on their sides, where there is no steel-belt reinforcement and patching is not possible.

“The other day both right tires on one woman’s car were cut,” Sertyan said. “Two weeks ago a lady and her daughter both came in. She was driving a BMW and her daughter was in a Toyota and both of them had tires that were ruined.”

City officials say they first suspected that the blowout problem was being blown out of proportion. But then tire complaints started rolling in.

Officials asked the water project’s contractor to pay for replacement tires. On Friday, the contractor was also instructed to cover the pipe bolts with sandbags, said Ross Moustafa, a Department of Water and Power inspector.

The pipes have been temporarily laid in the gutters to supply water to businesses during an eight-month, $1.4-million water pipeline renovation project, said Tom Erb, DWP engineer in charge of pipe rehabilitation.

The project involves cleaning 55-year-old cast-iron water pipes buried beneath the streets and lining their insides with a thin layer of corrosion-proof concrete, Erb said. Over the years, the pipes have been partially clogged by rust and mineral deposits; the new concrete lining will extend their life 50 years.

“We regret any inconvenience,” Erb said. “It’s up to the contractor for the project and his insurance company to do something about the damage.”

John Siler, project superintendent for the Anaheim-based Bobco Construction Co., said his firm has paid 16 blowout claims--although one driver who insisted that his damaged $135 tire was worth $265 did not get all that he asked for.

Siler urged motorists parking in the project zone between La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue to park a foot or so away from curbs with pipes in them. His company, he pledged, will do what is possible “to avoid as many tire punctures as we can.”

Back out on La Cienega, the tire replacement offer was welcome news to Don Jones, a 74-year-old retired welder from Gardena who is an actor.

He was fuming as he changed the right front tire on his 1988 Cadillac, which he had parked outside a casting office where he had gone to try out for a role in a television commercial. The tire had a huge, V-shaped gash in it. And his personal car insurance policy had a $100 deductible clause in it.

“That damned bolt chewed this hole,” said Jones as wrestled the wheel off the car and watched it bounce off the pipe and topple into the gutter. “I’m getting too old for this sort of thing.”