Getting the Good Public Works Going : Putting bond money into bridges--and libraries and police stations--more quickly

To those accustomed to hearing that government projects will take longer and cost more than planned, a new effort designed to speed construction of needed public safety improvements and create up to 3,600 jobs in the next two years, all for a bargain-basement price, comes as good news indeed.

Maintaining a modern infrastructure means attending not just to the big-ticket items like mass transit but to the smaller ones as well. Los Angeles voters understand that; in the last six years, they have approved more than $4 billion in bonds to build or refurbish libraries, police stations, bridges and aging city buildings.

One measure will finance the seismic reinforcement of bridges and city buildings; another will pay for fire sprinklers in several buildings, including City Hall; a third bond will permit upgrading of police stations; a fourth bond, approved by voters last November, will fund the upgrading of the city’s inadequate 911 emergency response system.

Yet much of this bond money is unspent because of bureaucratic delays. City architects and engineers must approve plans and bids for each project, and several departments must sign off before construction can start. The long city hiring freeze has overburdened department personnel and caused projects to come on line very slowly.

However, if a program proposed by Mayor Tom Bradley and City Controller Rick Tuttle wins approval from the City Council, many more of these projects could come on line sooner, thus creating more jobs here and jump-starting the local economy. The work speedup would result from the hiring of a handful of additional city employees--if the council agrees--to approve plans, supervise bidding and oversee construction and from cross-departmental agreements to move on several projects simultaneously and remove bureaucratic bottlenecks.

The speedup would be dramatic. By January, the acceleration could lead to retrofitting 110 bridges instead of the planned 35; work on 13 libraries instead of seven; construction of eight police facilities instead of four and seismic improvements on 14 city buildings instead of two.

As Mayor Bradley has said: “It’s a matter of priming the pump. . . . It’s a good investment.” And at a tiny price.