HOLLYWOOD : MTA Confirms Tunneling Buckled Walk of Fame

Confirming claims by a property owners’ group, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority official said Wednesday that tunnel machines boring under Hollywood Boulevard had caused sections of the Walk of Fame to buckle and crack.

But Roger Dames of the MTA’s construction department said, “We consider these items repairable and not unusual for tunnel construction of this nature.”

Dames showed up at an anti-subway construction news conference outside the Pacific Theatre, where a water main break on Saturday forced temporary closure of the theater and buckled the terrazzo sidewalk tiles. The theater, in the 6400 block of Hollywood Boulevard, had four feet of water in its basement and remained closed Wednesday.

John Walsh, a spokesman for United Riders of Los Angeles, said property owners are “demanding . . . an immediate cessation of tunneling and an investigation into all the damage to the building foundations and the sidewalk by the Army Corps of Engineers.” The Hollywood Boulevard Community Council made the same demands on Monday.

Because the Walk of Fame is part of a federally historic district, Walsh said he called U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman and Xavier Becerra (both D-Los Angeles), but neither has pledged support.

Dames said the damage outside the theater “was not so much the result of tunneling, but a ripple effect of . . . settlement caused by tunneling, which caused an old fire water line feeding the theater to break.”

The Hollywood line is part of the second phase of the Metro Red Line and will connect Hollywood to Downtown.