Universal Plans ‘Jurassic’ Ride of Epoch Proportions : Amusements: Sources estimate cost of studio’s 67,015-square-foot project at more than $80 million.

As construction crews lay the groundwork for an indoor jungle stalked by mechanized dinosaurs, details emerging from the guarded site of “Jurassic Park--The Ride” reveal that Universal Studios Hollywood is building one of the world’s most elaborate and expensive theme park attractions.

The water ride, featuring animatronics from Steven Spielberg’s 1993 hit film, is not scheduled to open until the summer of 1996. In the meantime, Universal executives hesitate to discuss progress on the site that goes by the name “Project 777.”

But architectural plans on file with the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Department show that the 67,015-square-foot attraction will occupy the center of the hillside park, between the “E.T.--Extra-Terrestrial” ride and a Chinese restaurant.

And sources close to Universal put construction costs at more than $80 million. That dwarfs Universal’s previous centerpiece, the $60-million “Back to the Future,” and approaches the $100 million Disneyland spent on its “Indiana Jones Adventure.”

By comparison, Elitch Gardens Amusement Park opened in Denver last weekend with 22 rides, as well as restaurants and shops, at a total cost of $95 million.

“It’s a giant project,” said Renee Weitzer, a planning deputy for Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro, who met with Universal executives last year to view artistic renderings of the attraction. “You go through Jurassic Park, just like the movie, and the dinosaurs jump up and they look real.”

The magnitude of the project, however, has some neighbors concerned about noise, and other impact on the community.

The ride begins at the towering gate made famous in the film, according to a statement Universal is expected to release Friday at a New York travel industry convention.

“The first shock is the change in perspective,” Neil Engel, the ride’s designer, says in the statement. “There was a time when ‘eye level’ was six or eight stories high. You have no notion what the Earth was once like until you’re overwhelmed by Jurassic Park.”

Sir Richard Attenborough, who portrayed the park’s creator in the film, appears in a videotaped greeting just beyond the entrance. He insists that the errors that doomed his first experiment with prehistoric DNA, in Costa Rica, have been corrected in this new park. The more dangerous types of dinosaurs, he says, have been safely caged behind 10,000-volt electrified fences.

Guests then board rafts that travel down a fog-shrouded jungle river, through “Herbivore Country” inhabited by plant-eating creatures.

A 30-foot-tall ultrasaur lowers its head across the raft for a sip of river water, the statement reads. An armor-plated stegosaurus , protective of nearby young, lashes its tail to keep passing guests at a distance.

The action picks up when a parasaurolophus nudges the raft off course. The ride accelerates, careening past a hole in the electrified fence surrounding the velociraptor pen.

“A demolished land cruiser dangles perilously from a guardrail,” the statement reads. “Another park boat appears abandoned.”

What follows is a high-speed dash past a spitting dilophosaurus and a charging Tyrannosaurus rex, followed by a plummet down an 80-foot waterfall.

“ ‘Jurassic Park--The Ride’ has characters on a scale never before devised, more than 30 feet high, up to 40 feet long,” Engel says. “And they’re not simply taken from imagination but as accurate as years of research and modern science can make them.”

Construction is taking place not far from Sound Stage 29, where Spielberg did much of his filming under perhaps the tightest security in the studio’s history. Universal hopes its spinoff attraction will prolong the commercial life of the highest-grossing movie of all time. “Jurassic Park” recently exceeded $1 billion in gross revenues with its videotape release entrenched on Billboard’s Top-10 sales list.

According to the architectural plans--filed by MCA Recreation Services and Coleman Caskey Architects of Irvine--a retail store will be included within the boundaries of the ride. The river follows a winding path before looping back to the entrance. Groves of oak trees dot the attraction’s western boundary.

And a large outdoor area has been allocated for waiting lines.

Universal has tried to keep the project under wraps at a time when its parent corporation, MCA Inc., is undergoing a change of ownership. Last month, beverage heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. agreed to spend $5.704 billion for a controlling interest in the entertainment conglomerate.

In the competitive $6-billion-a-year theme park industry, a successful new ride can boost attendance by as much as 10%, increasing profits by millions. Thus, Universal might worry about undermining this year’s business by talking about next year’s attraction, said Tim O’Brien, a regional editor for the Nashville-based Amusement Business magazine.

Rumors about the scale of the construction site are enough, however, to send some of Universal’s neighbors running scared. They fear the ride may be as noisy as it is costly and have begun referring to the attraction as “Project 666, for the devil,” said James Herzoff.

“I hear that there are going to be 50-foot dinosaurs,” said Herzoff, who lives two doors from the Universal property line. “What does a 50-foot Tyrannosaurus rex sound like? I’ll bet it doesn’t sound like my bichon frise. “

Industry experts, however, respond enthusiastically. O’Brien calls Southern California one of the best amusement park regions in the world. Harrison Price, an attractions-industry analyst based in Torrance, welcomes the addition of another multimillion-dollar ride to the local landscape.

“Anything over $30 million is huge,” Price said. “This is obviously their response to Indiana Jones.”