Rail Station to Be Built Using Usual Technique : Subway: Commission drops plans for underground mining, opting for the less costly cut-and-cover method. Savings will fund a plan to soften the project’s effects on businesses.

Metro Rail workers will use their usual cut-and-cover method to build the subway station at Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard instead of trying a more expensive underground mining technique approved earlier, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission ruled last week.

Reversing itself without discussion, the commission voted Wednesday to apply the $17-million saving to a $28-million mitigation program intended to soften the impacts of the long-term construction project on Hollywood’s hard-pressed economy.

Mining, though far less disruptive above ground, would have taken a year longer and required installing pipes to pump in reinforcing grout in case the earth started to give way, said Steve Lantz, Westside chief for the subway construction project.

The cut-and-cover method minimizes the impact on traffic and business, he said. The job will be easier because a parcel of land recently became available that workers can use as a base of operations to dig in from the side, he said.

“Once you’ve put the deck on in cut and cover, you’re digging from the top down and the certainty of not upsetting the street is far better,” Lantz said. “We like to plan jobs that avoid risk.”

Metro Rail planners have now committed themselves to moving utility lines to avoid raising traffic above street level, something that set off bitter complaints from merchants who stores were blocked from view elsewhere along the subway route.

They also promised valet parking, extensive signage, sound baffles, extra lighting, round-the-clock security, 10-foot-wide sidewalks, twice-daily cleanings of buildings, job sites and graffiti, low-interest business loans and $3 million worth of special techniques to remove, display and return the stars honoring entertainment industry notables along Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

At the meeting, critics asked that the project’s environmental report be amended to make the mitigation measures more binding.

“This mitigation was voted in the same way mining was voted in six months ago. That’s all the more reason not to trust them,” said Robert Nudelman, an activist who contends Metro Rail’s plans will destroy Hollywood’s historic character.

But the commissioners voted without discussion to approve the staff’s Hollywood recommendations along with three dozen other items on its consent calendar. The commission is composed of county supervisors and other local elected officials.

Lantz said the commission’s Rail Construction Corp. will create an advisory committee to oversee its work in Hollywood and that it will not deviate from the mitigation plan without consulting that panel.

Although the project could last up to four years, Lantz said the impact on the street would be limited to a few months per block when utilities are moved out of the way next spring, then two more months when the cover is installed over the station site at the beginning of 1994.

A representative of City Councilman Mike Woo, who angrily criticized Metro Rail’s mitigation plans in July, endorsed the latest proposals.

In a letter to Hollywood constituents, Woo said the new plan “will go a long way towards helping to make the Boulevard ‘liveable’ for merchants, residents, tourists and others.”

Michael C. Dubin, a member of the board of directors of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, also urged its adoption.

But he said he was “very suspicious” of promises from Metro Rail officials in light of similar assurances that he said were disregarded during construction downtown and in the Mid-Wilshire area.

“If the information that was provided is factual, the enhanced cut-and-cover construction method is the correct choice,” Dubin said. “However, the . . . method is of little value without the full funding and support of the proposed mitigation plan.”