EARTHQUAKE / THE LONG ROAD BACK : Santa Clarita Damage Estimate Doubles : Reconstruction: Quake toll is put at $222 million. Caltrans dynamites a wrecked Interstate 5 overpass, and two new Metrolink stations are rapidly built.

Santa Clarita officials on Sunday nearly doubled estimates of earthquake damage to structures in the city as Caltrans engineers dynamited a ruined Golden State Freeway overpass nearby and workers put finishing touches on two hastily built Metrolink stations in Palmdale and Lancaster.

In the Antelope Valley, U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena thanked workers who erected a pair of Metrolink stations in just four days in anticipation of a crush of commuters headed south into Los Angeles this morning.

“I want to congratulate you for doing such a great job and doing it so quickly,” Pena told construction workers, who were still toiling late Sunday. “It’s incredible.”

Santa Clarita city officials on Sunday revised their estimate of damage to homes, businesses and public buildings in their city at $222 million. But they added that residents seem to be coping well as they settle into a post-quake routine of disruptions.

“I think things are going well. We’ve kind of passed through a lot of the critical things. People have water. The utilities have been turned on. Now, at least people are getting settled into some kind of routine,” said Ken Pulskamp, Santa Clarita’s assistant city manager.

In their latest assessment, city officials added $89 million worth of damage to various private structures, $50 million of it to Cal Arts, a private college. That brought to nearly 1,100 the number of private buildings damaged in the city.

Gail Foy, a city spokeswoman, estimated that more than half of the area’s nearly 3,000 mobile homes also were knocked off their pads by last Monday’s Northridge-centered temblor, cutting them off from utilities. Thirty teams of building inspectors are assessing the damage.

Officials, meanwhile, expect this morning to begin reopening City Hall on Valencia Boulevard. Crews worked through the weekend to begin repairing its estimated $2 million worth of damage. But the city’s emergency center will remain in tents and trailers in the parking lot.

In Palmdale and Lancaster, crews have been working 18-hour days to construct two temporary train stations. The cities have spent more than $300,000 on the platforms and are hoping the federal government will reimburse them.

Metrolink use has surged since the earthquake, with Antelope Valley commuters last week having to catch the train at the nearest station in Santa Clarita. More than 6,000 people rode Metrolink from the Santa Clarita station Friday morning, up from a pre-quake average of only 500.

At the federal disaster assistance center in Canyon Country, officials accepted relief applications from more than 400 people on Sunday and more than 1,700 had appointments booked through the end of this week, as the growing operation spilled from a park building into the outdoors.

Just after 5 p.m. Sunday, Caltrans crews demolished a damaged section of the northbound Golden State Freeway at Gavin Canyon, part of the work necessary to open a freeway bypass by the end of this week.

Relief officials reported that five shelters in the Santa Clarita area housed about 590 people Saturday night--down by about 60 people from the night before.

City officials said most electricity had been restored, but about 30% of residents still were without natural gas. Most areas also had water service, except for several thousand Valencia Water Co. customers.