Coliseum Repair Costs Rise 40% : Earthquake: Tab is now expected to reach $50 million, but FEMA has promised more help.

Earthquake repair costs at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will reach $50 million, Coliseum Commission President Yvonne Brathwaite Burke disclosed Tuesday.

That would be more than 40% above the original estimate of $35 million, but Burke, who is also a county supervisor, reported that she had received new assurances from James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that federal funding already amounting to $34 million will increase.

Burke said Witt assured her that “there will be no cash flow problem” as the repairs proceed. The target date for reopening the stadium is Sept. 3, when USC plays the University of Washington in its home opener.

Witt’s press secretary, Morris Goodman, supported Burke’s statements, saying: “FEMA will look at new damages and based on that inspection, we will pay all eligible costs.”

Burke said the steady increase in cost estimates for the repairs stem mainly from a need to use much more high-strength epoxy than expected to seal about 10,000 cracks in the stadium caused by the Northridge earthquake. In addition, she said, it has cost more than expected to repair and seismically reinforce the historic peristyle.

Epoxy costs $100 a gallon and hundreds of gallons have been used, she said.

The original $35-million repair estimate made in January by project director Don C. Webb was always tentative, and Webb had warned that it could rise.

The project director recently said he had assured FEMA representatives that the cost would not reach $80 million after they expressed concern.

Goodman said Tuesday that Burke’s new estimate might not be quite high enough and that costs would be “$50 million-plus.” Another Coliseum official said costs could reach $60 million.