Subway Tunneling Halted Because of Sinkage : Transit: The ground had sunk just over 1 1/2 inches, triggering grouting to shore up the area before subsidence increases. Digging is expected to resume in a week.

Subway tunneling in Hollywood was shut down again Wednesday after it was determined that the ground had sunk more than 1 1/2 inches in some spots, but transit officials said they hope to resume work on the troubled project in about a week.

As required by new rules, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority automatically halted work when subsidence reached slightly more than 1 1/2 inches.

The new rules were imposed after portions of Hollywood Boulevard sank as much as 10 inches, forcing a halt to excavation for nearly five months and leading to the temporary suspension of federal funding for the subway project.

“We’re taking no chances,” said Franklin E. White, MTA chief executive officer. “Even though we’ve experienced only a minuscule amount of subsidence beyond the criteria, we had committed to the Hollywood community that we would stop tunneling and undertake a grouting program to stabilize the soil.”

The grouting is expected to take a week and then tunneling is expected to resume, an MTA spokesman said.

An aide to Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said that she was pleased that MTA was abiding by the new rules. The aide said MTA appears to be making a “good-faith effort to protect Hollywood.”

But Robert Nudelman of the Hollywood Boulevard Community Council said, “They shouldn’t be allowed to continue tunneling until they know what they’re doing, and obviously they don’t.”

The work shutdown Wednesday involved the south tunnel under Hollywood Boulevard near Cherokee Avenue. Excavation of the north tunnel has been halted since Jan. 26 while crews replace wooden wedges, used for bracing, with steel struts.