Hollywood : Underground Subway Work

Most of the work for the Hollywood Boulevard-Highland Avenue station of Metro Rail will be done underground when construction begins in 1994, said officials of the Rail Construction Corp.

The decision is intended to minimize the impact of work on residents and businesses, although it will not result in any less construction traffic, the officials noted.

Approved in mid-May, the underground work would bring the final cost of the station to between $75 million and $80 million, an increased cost that transportation officials hope will be picked up by the federal government.

For now, plans still call for work on the stations at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue and at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street to be built by the more disruptive cut-and-cover method, as was used during the first phase of Metro Rail construction in Downtown Los Angeles. The cost of excavating a station under this method is estimated at $50 million.

Studies have been ordered, however, to determine if the work also can be done primarily by tunneling beneath the surface.

Other mitigation steps recommended by the Rail Construction Corp., a subsidiary of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, include removing and preserving the stars from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, increased lighting, and restriction of major street-level construction work to the hours from midnight to 10 a.m.