Council Lifts Ban on Tunneling in Hollywood

The Los Angeles City Council removed the last obstacle Tuesday for tunneling to resume beneath Hollywood Boulevard, ending a four-month construction ban ordered after sinkage was discovered along the famed thoroughfare during the summer.

The council unanimously approved a set of safety recommendations--including daily city inspections--that will allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to resume boring the northern tunnel of the Red Line pair of tunnels after Jan. 1. Work was suspended in August after buildings and sidewalks sank up to 10 inches.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who represents Hollywood, voted with the rest of the council to approve the plan but warned the MTA that the city would keep a sharp lookout for any new problems or lapses in construction techniques.

“I assure you that my staff will be there every day and at least one member of the city’s engineering family will be there every day,” Goldberg said. “I want someone there watching.”

The council’s approval, although technically not required, was crucial for the MTA to continue construction. It came after a lengthy city task force report that advised extensive grouting to protect historic landmarks such as Mann’s Chinese Theater and the Roosevelt Hotel. The city also hired task force member and engineer Gerald Lehmer to ensure that grouting is conducted immediately if further settlement occurs.

“Now we feel like we can go ahead. This is definitely a milestone,” MTA spokesman Bill Heard said of the council vote, adding that it would have been “foolhardy to proceed without city approval.”

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Tunneling is scheduled to resume on the northern tunnel soon after Jan. 1, with work on the southern tunnel to follow. The MTA expects digging beneath Hollywood to be completed in six months.

Resumption of work on the troubled project will cap four months of tumult for what is the nation’s most expensive subway system per mile.

The discovery of subsidence along Hollywood Boulevard prompted the evacuation of dozens of residents and the rescue of several sidewalk stars along the Walk of Fame. It also brought the stunning announcement in October that the federal government would withhold funds for Red Line extensions to the Eastside and the San Fernando Valley until the MTA showed it could manage the project competently.

In November, the Federal Transit Administration relented after MTA chief Franklin E. White shook up construction management and approved engineering changes designed to prevent a repeat of the problems that have plagued the multibillion-dollar project.

Responsibility for quality and safety control was shifted in-house and taken from a widely criticized private firm. Workers grouted the tunnels and installed steel beams to stabilize the two tunnels. Revamped construction plans also require the use of steel struts inside the tunnels instead of the wooden wedges blamed by outside engineers for some of the ground sinkage.

White agreed to the added conditions, including the daily city inspections, before the City Council on Tuesday. The more stringent construction guidelines did not appease Chris Shabel, president of the Hollywood Stakeholders, a coalition of residential and merchant groups.

“What I heard about the report gives me no reassurance whatsoever,” Shabel said. “I don’t see MTA as having altered one little bit. They’re still the same. They’re still being slipshod.”

She contended that the city task force had not done an adequate job of scrutinizing the tunneling problems and said buildings and sidewalks continue to sink.

“It is still dropping. We will now monitor every crack, everything that goes on on the boulevard.”

Times staff writer John Schwada contributed to this story.