Sylmar Metrolink Station Delays Cost L.A. $100,000

Bureaucratic snags that have delayed construction of a Metrolink station in Sylmar have cost the city of Los Angeles about $100,000 in penalties, Metrolink officials said Wednesday.

The revelation that delays in the city’s permit approval process have increased the cost of the nearly $2-million station came during harsh criticism of Metrolink and city transportation officials by members of the City Council’s committee on government efficiency.

“I don’t want to hear about red tape and all the contracts--I just want to hear about it getting done,” Councilman Hal Bernson, a member of the committee, told transportation officials.

The committee instructed Metrolink and transportation officials to return in 60 days with a report outlining a timetable for completing the station before April.

Although Metrolink trains began operating in October, 1992, the proposed stop at Hubbard and 1st streets suffered several months of delays because of stalled real estate negotiations with the site’s property owner.

Now, Metrolink officials say the project has been put off again by delays in getting city permit approval for its design.

The city is paying two-thirds of the cost of the station, with the city of San Fernando providing the balance. Metrolink and Los Angeles transportation officials are working together to complete the station.

Gary Crary, project manager for Metrolink’s construction division, said the delays are mostly a result of disagreements among different city agencies over the project’s design.

Because of the delays, the city was forced to pay the contractor nearly $100,000 in penalties for stalling the completion of its 100-day contract, he said. The delays in getting a city permit became so numerous that Metrolink was forced to cancel the contract altogether in August, Crary said.

Councilman Richard Alarcon, a member of the government efficiency committee whose district includes the proposed Sylmar stop, said he was frustrated with the delays in completing the station.

“The perception is the poor folks in the northeast Valley have been ignored by the bureaucracy,” he told Crary and James Okazaki, a city transportation manager.

But Okazaki said the problem is that the delays are part of the city’s approval process. “We’ve been very cooperative,” he said. “It’s the process.”