EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Civil Construction Companies Likely to Cash In

Construction firms are already cleaning up--literally and figuratively--under emergency contracts to remove freeway damage from Monday’s earthquake, while others stand to benefit handsomely from rebuilding work that will keep them busy for at least the next year.

Three major demolition firms won four contracts worth $3.4 million from the California Department of Transportation to remove collapsed sections along the Golden State, Santa Monica, Simi Valley and Antelope Valley freeways within the week: Granite Construction of Watsonville, Calif.; Penhall Co. of Anaheim, and C.A. Rasmussen of Simi Valley.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Transportation is readying streamlined procedures to speed highway funds to California so rebuilding contracts can be let. During a visit to Southern California Wednesday, President Clinton promised to make $45 million in emergency highway funds available, and added that he would go to Congress for more if needed.

There’s no estimate yet on how many construction jobs will be created in the aftermath of the quake, but the Construction Industry Research Board in Burbank says that every $1 million spent typically results in 29 new jobs.

Meanwhile, construction firms--including those responsible for some of California’s largest public works projects--have already put out feelers to Caltrans--some just hours after the quake struck at 4:31 a.m.

Several well-known California firms in the tightly knit civil construction industry have expressed an interest in bidding on major freeway reconstruction contracts, expected to add up to billions of dollars: Kasler Corp. of Highland, MCM Construction of North Highlands, Steve P. Rados of Santa Ana and Granite Construction.

Some of these firms were involved in repair work after the 1989 San Francisco Bay Area quake, the Century Freeway project and other work.

In addition, highway design contractors in the private sector are expected to get the lion’s share of the work in planning the repairs, said Robert Bein of the Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates civil engineering firm in Irvine.

“There’s no way Caltrans has the resources on its own staff to handle the amount of design work necessary,” Bein said.

That should be good news for about 150 minority- and women-owned contracting firms certified by Caltrans. The agency’s rules require that they receive up to 20% of the work, either directly or as subcontractors.

For their part, minority-owned contractors wondered why none of their firms were considered for the initial four contracts, and they said they hoped they won’t be left out of future work.

In a letter Wednesday to state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Burke and L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, the United Minority Contractors Assn. complained about the lack of work and asked them to intervene.

Jim McCarthy, assistant to the Caltrans district director in Los Angeles, said some minority subcontractors had been hired, but he did not have details.

“Under the emergency rules we’re working on . . . we have set goals of 20% (minority participation) on those contracts, and we are strongly encouraging our (primary) contractors to use minority contractors beyond that,” he said.

Caltrans, meanwhile, is modifying its normal bidding procedures to expedite the massive process of rebuilding Southern California’s crippled freeway network.

Large firms aren’t the only ones that will benefit. With hundreds of damaged residential, commercial and industrial buildings--everything from apartment houses to the crumpled scoreboard at Anaheim Stadium--there will be more than enough work to go around, construction experts say.

“Certainly these kinds of disasters generate some jobs--and in this case that could be a lot of jobs,” said Janice Tuchman, managing editor of Engineering News-Record, an industry magazine.

Gov. Pete Wilson estimated that total damages could run between $15 billion and $30 billion. Wall Street apparently sensed the inevitable windfall to the industry, sending construction stock prices up on Wednesday.

Demolition contracts went out even as the ground was still shaking from aftershocks. By Monday afternoon, crews were starting to remove debris at the Interstate 5-California 14 interchange, where bridges collapsed.

By Tuesday morning, Penhall Co. workers were already hacking away at what was left of the Santa Monica Freeway bridge over Fairfax Avenue at the east end of Culver City. With a dozen workers on each of two 12-hour shifts, the company was expected to have cleared Fairfax by late Wednesday. Workers were also clearing a collapsed bridge a short distance away over La Cienega Boulevard, said Roger Stull, president of Penhall’s parent company.

In the informality of the emergency process, Stull said the company was billing the state hourly--between $30 and $200 an hour, depending on the level of manpower and equipment used. The only criteria: have the roads cleared by the end of the week.

Penhall is also the firm that will clean up Anaheim Stadium, where the 35,000-pound video display screen crashed onto the upper tier of seats, bending the trademark “A” backward.

Granite Construction, meanwhile, was fielding 20 workers per shift and 14 pieces of heavy equipment to clear the damaged interchange where the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways merge. At the same time, a Granite vice president began talking with Caltrans officials about bidding on future reconstruction work Monday morning, only hours after the quake’s first massive jolt.

The freeway repairs may constitute the largest single projects, but it won’t make up the only work.

For example, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program said its $10-million Granada Hills office building was declared a total loss and will probably need to be rebuilt.

But the health maintenance organization said hiring contractors was not on the top of the list of things to do.

“Our priority is to serve our health plan members,” said spokeswoman Kit Niemeyer at the company’s regional headquarters in Pasadena.

Times staff writer James Granelli in Orange County contributed to this report.