Nonstop Coliseum Repairs OKd : Landmarks: State preservation officer approves immediate seismic work on quake damage. Some activists have bitterly opposed the renovations.

Breaking a deadlock among historic preservationists that threatened to impede earthquake repairs at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the state’s historic preservation officer Friday approved an immediate start to round-the-clock work to seismically reinforce the stadium.

Cherilyn Widell authorized beginning full excavation of the concrete slab floor of the stadium’s badly cracked upper-level concourse. That will allow holes to be drilled so that 55-foot caissons can be installed to anchor the stadium’s outer wall and superstructure to an earthen berm.

Widell, at a meeting with preservationists and Coliseum officials, also agreed to allow 12 concession stands to be demolished and five to be temporarily moved to make room for horizontal beams to reinforce the stadium’s outer wall.

Trees that grow on the berm outside the Coliseum may also be removed. Many of these, like the concession stands, are in the way of seismic reinforcement plans.

Widell has legal authority to authorize the reinforcement work despite opposition from some of nine historic preservation agencies and private groups. The groups have been at loggerheads over the proposed renovations, which have made it uncertain whether the repairs could be completed by a September deadline for reopening the stadium.

Widell said her office will work with the preservation groups to try to prevent such bitter exchanges as the ones that occurred at a meeting with Coliseum officials Wednesday.

When Coliseum project director Don C. Webb sought approval to proceed with the repair work, Ray Girvigian, chairman emeritus of the state Historic Building Safety Board, said it would damage historic elements of the Coliseum. Some others opposed moving the five concession stands that date from the stadium’s early days.

Even before Friday’s agreement, Tutor-Saliba Corp., the contractor for the Coliseum repairs, had moved heavy equipment next to the stadium to be ready to begin repairs.

The renovation project is estimated to cost at least $34.7 million, but Webb said this week that the costs could rise if it is necessary to demolish and rebuild the peristyle end of the stadium, where the Olympic torch burned during the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

The project director said the peristyle--one the parts of the 71-year-old facility most severely damaged during the earthquake--may have to be demolished because the concrete has been found to be weak and mixed with huge chunks of granite.

Federal and state authorities have promised to finance the Coliseum repairs, and the first $10.9 million has been allocated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Calling it “negation by delay,” Webb expressed alarm after Wednesday’s meeting that the preservation organizations could dither so long on the repairs that the project would not begin this year.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the commission’s president, expressed similar concerns.

But some of the preservation groups said they wanted to proceed. Amy Forbes, president of the Los Angeles Conservancy, said her group’s board had voted to support Webb’s concepts.

“We are committed to getting the thing done . . . to meet their (repair) schedule,” Forbes said.

But Girvigian said he is opposed to any relaxation of laws “so somebody can meet a political deadline.”

“As far as I’m concerned, no one wants to intentionally delay anything,” he said. “But if you start to bend the rules . . . then you are not complying with the letter and the spirit of the law.”

As the sharp statements began to fly, Widell changed the subject of a scheduled meeting so that Webb’s requests could be discussed Friday.

“We have a responsibility to the public to make sure the Coliseum is repaired and the character of the building is protected,” she said. “It must be done in a correct but efficient manner, and it must be done quickly.”