Fears of Sinking Soil Stall Subway Effort : Timeline: Despite setbacks, officials expect the project to be completed by its July, 2000, target date.

Although late delivery of equipment and setbacks in tunneling have put the North Hollywood subway project at least four months behind schedule, transit officials believe the southeast San Fernando Valley extension of the Metro Red Line is still on target for its planned July, 2000, opening.

So far, the huge mining machines have gone forward only 216 feet beneath Lankershim Boulevard since Feb. 13--far less progress than expected, pushing back the project several weeks. Tardy delivery and assembly of tons of equipment at the outset delayed the project another two months.

Work on the $65.4-million project remains at a standstill as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its contractors hash out how to deal with the loose, sandy soil that has made tunneling in North Hollywood especially difficult. Resumption of digging is not expected until at least next week.

However, MTA officials say the project enjoys some leeway that so far puts the subway’s expected opening date five years from now out of jeopardy.

The actual completion of the North Hollywood-to-Universal City segment is estimated to be sometime in 1997. But that portion of the subway cannot begin operating until the missing link to Downtown Los Angeles--the intervening segment between Universal City and Hollywood--is completed by 2000.

Thus, the Valley extension has some time to spare, said Al Wattson, acting tunnel manager for the project.

Still, both the MTA and the project’s contractor, Obayashi Corp. of South San Francisco, feel the weight of deadline pressure to get the job done amid governmental scrutiny and complaints from nearby merchants over noise, dust and possible structural damage from the excavation. Obayashi has suggested that its tunnelers work six days a week, rather than five, to make up for lost time, Wattson said. The concept is still under discussion.

Holding up construction now is the question of how best to bore through soil resembling that beneath Hollywood Boulevard, which sank nearly a foot last summer from tunneling. The earth under Lankershim is known as “young alluvium,” a sandy, river-washed soil that shakes loose easily, making subsidence and cave-ins during tunneling more likely.

“We’ve had similar conditions on Segment 1 (in Downtown Los Angeles) and Hollywood Boulevard, but this exact combination of conditions has not been encountered before,” said Steve Chesser, a spokesman for the MTA.

In March, the ground dropped five inches above the tunnel ceiling. Although the settlement was barely perceptible at the earth’s surface, operations shut down as gravel and grout were injected to fill the void.

Three weeks ago, mining was halted again after another half-inch depression was detected. Tunneling has yet to resume as the MTA and Obayashi debate the best approach to moving ahead--which will also decide who must pay for any extra work. Both sides have engaged outside consultants to examine the situation.

To Obayashi, whose officials declined to comment, the answer is pre-excavation grouting to help the soil clump together and stay packed, Wattson said--a potentially expensive process whose cost would be borne by the financially strapped MTA. The transit agency has already spent an additional $175,000 for grouting on the project.

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The MTA’s experts believe the problem can be solved by making some adjustments to the tunneling equipment--high-tech machinery worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The equipment has been beset with problems, including the failure of eight hydraulic motors.

Representatives of Obayashi and the MTA are to meet next week to try to reach an agreement on how and when to continue digging.

Completion--or abandonment--of the project would come none too soon for Samir Yousif, a businessman who says his car dealership at Lankershim and Hortense Street has suffered heavy losses from the noise and inconvenience of the problem-plagued excavation.

Where he once sold a hundred cars a month, he now closes the deal on six, Yousif says. His staff has been cut. Yousif also contends that tunneling has damaged his building.

“It’s absolutely a madhouse, what’s going on here. A corner of my property is sinking, and glass in my window is cracking,” he said. “It’s beyond a nightmare.”

Yousif has joined a number of merchants along Hollywood Boulevard who expect to file a lawsuit against the MTA this week, according to their attorney, John Girardi.

However, Yousif has not yet filed a claim with the agency itself. MTA representatives contend that the agency has gone to great lengths to lessen the impact of construction by paying for signs, passing out flyers advertising local businesses and even staging an auto festival for Yousif’s car dealership.

“We have really knocked ourselves out” to mitigate the problems caused by construction, said MTA spokeswoman Andrea Greene.