Key Tunnel Supervisors Not Licensed in State : Subway: Engineering officials approved use of wood wedges. MTA says it was unaware of credential status.

The two engineering officials who approved the controversial substitution of wood wedges for steel bracing in 12 miles of Los Angeles subway tunnels are not licensed to practice in California, records show.

And eight out of 10 of the “resident engineers” who have directly overseen work on the multibillion-dollar subway are not licensed as engineers by the state, according to records in Sacramento.

An independent analysis prepared last week for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority concluded that the substitution of the wedges was “inappropriate.” Earlier engineering studies have found that the failure of the wedges contributed to surface sinkages along Hollywood Boulevard two months ago.

The two officials who approved the substitution have worked on behalf of the transit authority, under the employ of separate consulting firms.

One is Timothy P. Smirnoff, manager of tunnel engineering for the authority and employed by the project’s lead design firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff.

The other is Stephen J. Navin, who until early this year was classified as a resident engineer for the MTA’s construction management firm, Parsons-Dillingham.

Navin, who is working on a Parsons Corp. project in the San Diego area, is in Europe this week and unavailable, according to a receptionist.

A spokesman for Parsons-Dillingham, Ron Wildermuth, said Navin participated in the approval process for the substitution but deferred to Smirnoff’s firm for “the engineering decision itself.”

Wildermuth said the resident engineers on the subway “are not authorized to perform the duties of a licensed state engineer. . . . Therefore (resident engineers) working on this project are not required to be licensed engineers in the state of California.”

Smirnoff, who did not return calls Tuesday, has declined to be interviewed regarding his approval of the substitution of the 32-inch-long wood wedges. Smirnoff approved the substitution Sept. 11, 1992, at the request of the tunnel contractor, Shea-Kiewit-Kenny. The wedges were placed in the initial tunnel shell, between segments of precast concrete.

Smirnoff told The Times in an interview 13 months ago that, although he does not hold a license to practice civil engineering in California, he is licensed in New York. Records kept by New York officials confirm that Smirnoff has been licensed there, in good standing, since 1974.

At the MTA, Deputy Chief Executive Officer L.A. (Kim) Kimball said Tuesday that the licensing status of the two engineering officials was not known to top agency executives. As for the other subway engineers who are not licensed, Kimball said:

“It would be preferable from our point of view that they be licensed engineers. But I’m not sure that would be a requirement for their giving sound engineering advice.”

Federal Transit Administrator Gordon J. Linton on Oct. 5 froze $1.6 billion of future funding for the Los Angeles subway. Clinton Administration officials have said that the funding will be restored when the MTA demonstrates that it can competently manage construction of the subway, the most expensive per mile in U.S. history.

Also at stake in the controversy over the sinkages in Hollywood is the extent to which contractors--or taxpayers--will have to pay for perhaps tens of millions of dollars needed to repair the tunnels, damaged streets and buildings, and to compensate businesses for lost revenues. Franklin E. White, the MTA’s chief executive officer, said last month that he would review the decision to approve the substitution of the wood wedges for steel bracing.

Licensing in another state does not qualify a person to practice civil engineering in California, according to officials in Sacramento. They also said all circumstances must be considered when assessing whether an engineer is performing services that require a license.

Navin, whom Parsons-Dillingham transferred off the Los Angeles project nine months ago, has construction experience in the United States and Canada. Navin had worked on the Los Angeles subway since the late 1980s and was the resident engineer for the tunneling in Hollywood and along Vermont Avenue when excavation began in mid-1993.

Both Navin and Smirnoff have played prominent roles in the construction. Navin, as resident engineer, ordered Shea-Kiewit-Kenny one year ago to perform a special grouting procedure “to arrest this continued settlement” after sinkages along Vermont had reached four inches, records show.

And the MTA’s subway project manager has said he relied on advice from Smirnoff in deciding not to order grouting procedures in Hollywood, after sinkages of four inches occurred in late July. When tunneling continued without the grouting, the sinkages grew to up to nine inches.

The MTA project manager, Joel J. Sandberg, was reassigned last week to a less senior position.

Smirnoff prepared an MTA Tunnel Review Board report, issued Sept. 1, which attributed the surface sinkages in part to the failure of the wood wedges and an “indetectable difference” in soils. Smirnoff signed the report, identifying himself as a “P.E.”, short for “professional engineer.”

California law prohibits people unlicensed in the state “to in any manner use the title ‘professional engineer.’ ”

The work extending through Hollywood--the largest tunneling contract in the brief history of the Los Angeles subway--is mired in disputes over the sinkages and other difficulties encountered underground. Before tunneling was halted in Hollywood on Aug. 18, the contract, awarded originally at $163 million, was nine months behind schedule.

California requires anyone practicing civil engineering to be licensed by the state, according to officials with the California Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors.

Whether Smirnoff’s or Navin’s approval of the wood bracing met the state’s definition of civil engineering would have to depend on a review of “all the facts,” said Peggy A. Pigeon, an enforcement analyst with the board in Sacramento.

“They must be registered in the state of California in order to practice civil engineering on a California project,” Pigeon said.

State law defines civil engineering in part as, “the use and design of materials of construction and the determination of their physical qualities.” The law also says: “In order to safeguard life, health, property and public welfare, no person shall practice civil, electrical or mechanical engineering unless appropriately” licensed.

In approving the substitution of the wood wedges for metal struts, which had been specified for placement in the Hollywood and Vermont tunnels, Smirnoff and Navin accepted the contractor’s contention that the wood could withstand 1,556 pounds per square inch of pressure.

The independent engineering firm retained by the MTA rejected the substitution in a report issued last week. The firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc., said that even the strongest oak wedges cannot be assumed to have a strength greater than 885 pounds per square inch.

“Substitution of the wood wedges for the specified metal struts was inappropriate,” Wiss, Janney concluded.

On Aug. 20, workers were evacuated from one of the twin tunnels on Hollywood Boulevard because the contractor feared the structure could collapse.

Officials at the California engineering board also said that, even if someone is registered as an engineer in another state, he is required to obtain a license from Sacramento to practice civil, mechanical or electrical engineering here.

A licensee from another state must pass a five-hour written exam encompassing “seismic principles and engineering survey” to practice civil engineering in California, said Pat Canterbury, assistant executive officer with the state board.

In any event, the lack of licensing for Smirnoff and Navin is not unusual on the Los Angeles subway project, according to state engineering board records checked by The Times:

The records show that eight of the 10 officials assigned by Parsons-Dillingham as “resident engineers” on stations and tunnels under construction from Wilshire Boulevard to Hollywood Boulevard do not hold California engineering licenses.

Parsons-Dillingham, controlled by the Pasadena-based Parsons Corp., has received upward of $260 million for its work. Parsons Brinckerhoff, a New York-based firm that is unrelated, has received more than $300 million, along with its affiliated design-engineering firms.

Former Metro Rail official James Pott said a dearth of licensed engineers “is one of the indicators of a lousy management structure for a project of this scope.” Pott, a licensed civil engineer, served from 1990 to 1992 on the board of the agency’s subsidiary, the Rail Construction Corp.

Noting the multimillion-dollar disputes that have erupted because of disputed underground conditions--from soil hardness Downtown to the sinkages in Hollywood--Pott said the “hands-on” expertise of licensed engineers is needed. The MTA should insist, Pott said, that all the resident engineers are “licensed and in the ground--in a dirty shirt and boots.”

The California Department of Transportation requires that each of its “resident engineers” who oversee the building of freeways, roads and bridges be licensed by the state. Jim Drago, a spokesman for Caltrans, said that the department’s resident engineers oversee each project, ensure that the work is built according to plans, schedule all payments to the contractors and must approve any request for a variation from the specifications.

“On our projects, the key person is the resident engineer,” Drago said. “The resident engineer is always licensed. They’re running the job.”

Under terms of Parsons-Dillingham’s contract with the MTA, the firm provides resident engineers who serve as “the focal point for on-site Construction Management activities.” The contract also says the resident engineers are responsible for “reviewing for content (and) processing submittals from contractors,” in consultation with the MTA’s design engineering group, headed by Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Hoping to win back the federal funding, the MTA has submitted a reorganization proposal to the government. The proposal seeks to shift directly to the MTA many of the construction management functions now performed by Parsons-Dillingham. It does not address the qualifications of engineers working on the project.

Parts of the proposal are to be discussed today at a meeting of the MTA board of directors.

* FINED FOR VIOLATIONS: Subway builder fined $447,125 for safety violations. B4