Subway Could Reach Valley Year Earlier Than Planned : Red Line: A revised work schedule to begin tunneling from two sites at once is presented to a county transportation planning committee.

A proposal to begin tunneling for the Metro Red Line simultaneously from North Hollywood and Universal City next summer would bring Southern California’s first subway to the San Fernando Valley in the year 2000--one year ahead of schedule, county transportation officials said Thursday.

A revised work schedule recommended last month by Los Angeles County Transportation Commissioner Nikolas Patsaouras would also eliminate the need for an excavation site in Hollywood, where residents and merchants have expressed concern about trucks hauling dirt 18 hours a day, six days a week.

The proposed schedule, presented Wednesday to the Transportation Commission’s Planning and Mobility Improvement Committee, is subject to approval by the full commission, which is scheduled to take up the issue early next year.

The Metro Red Line from downtown Los Angeles to North Hollywood is being built in three segments. Construction of the first, from Union Station to MacArthur Park, is largely finished and service is scheduled to begin in January. Construction on the second segment up Vermont Avenue and west on Hollywood Boulevard to Vine Street is to be completed in 1998.

Under current plans, workers would tunnel south from Universal City and north from Hollywood and meet somewhere under Mount Olympus. The segment from North Hollywood to Universal City would be built later. Construction in the Valley was scheduled to begin in several years.

The new proposal would have workers in North Hollywood begin tunneling toward Universal City late next summer, even as excavation began from Universal City southward to meet with the Red Line in Hollywood.

The station in Universal City will be situated at Lankershim Boulevard and the Hollywood Freeway, and the station in North Hollywood will be at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards, near North Hollywood Park.

The side effects of construction on the 6.3-mile line from Hollywood to North Hollywood would be minimal because the North Hollywood construction site is near railroad tracks that can be used to carry loads of dirt from the excavation, county transportation officials said.

The Universal City station site is next to the Hollywood Freeway so that trucks hauling dirt can immediately enter the freeway without passing through residential areas, they said.

“I’m so very pleased that the Valley will be served a year earlier,” said Patsaouras, a Tarzana resident, who expects the commission to approve the schedule change. But he said he believes that construction estimates by the Transportation Commission staff are conservative and that the new schedule could advance the opening of the Valley segment by up to two years.

By reducing construction time, the Transportation Commission would save money because building costs are expected to increase in the future, said Charles Stark, project manager for the Hollywood to North Hollywood segment. He said it is unclear how much the proposed schedule change would save.

The Red Line would eventually connect with a proposed east-west Valley transit system. One proposed route would connect at the North Hollywood station and run mostly underground to Warner Center. The other would link up in Universal City with a monorail that would run along the median of the Hollywood Freeway to Warner Center. The Transportation Commission is scheduled to decide in December on which east-west line to build.