Confidence in Subway Tunnel Is Sinking : MTA should be able to keep construction of Valley rail line on target, without subsidence

Who could blame San Fernando Valley residents for being less and less excited about the advancement of the Metro Rail subway line through their communities?

First, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority finally agrees on how and where to run the darned thing to the West Valley, only to have to change just months later. Budget constraints and a more realistic assessment of mass transit alternatives may have cut those plans in half, with the rail line perhaps proceeding only to the San Diego Freeway.

Then came unexpected delays in the subway tunneling process toward the planned North Hollywood station. There have been two such delays in three weeks. The reason this time? The ground had begun sinking below heavily congested Lankershim Boulevard, causing the closure of one northbound lane for 12 hours. A drilling rig, a crane and a pump had to be brought in to dig into the intersection of Lankershim and Weddington Street so that gravel and grout could be injected to fill the depression.

That makes us wonder what is going on.

It was on Feb. 27 that tunneling was stopped for two weeks along the same North Hollywood tunnel route because of soil sinkage. And it was just last summer that a far more serious incident occurred in Hollywood. The sinkage there resulted in a four-month halt in tunneling and a temporary freeze on federal construction aid funds.

Who cares if the sinking problem seems less serious now? The measuring stick, quite literally, cannot be just a gradual improvement in subsidence.

We’re also not prepared to shout hooray because the tunneling delays have dropped from four months to two weeks and less.

The bottom line here is simple: Get the work back on schedule without turning the route into a sinkhole. Is that so difficult?