New Subway Head Digs Right In : Transit: MTA construction chief had barely gotten his feet on the ground when he had to make the decision to dismiss the project’s contractor.

He hadn’t put the family pictures on his desk yet, hadn’t even found the company cafeteria. But he faced one of the most difficult decisions he had ever made, a turning point in the storied history of one of the nation’s largest public works projects.

Should the Metropolitan Transportation Authority fire the subway contractor after a giant sinkhole opened up over Hollywood Boulevard, the latest in a string of construction debacles? Or should it retain the firm, which had already been paid $145.1 million, and risk more troubles?

For a year, MTA officials had wrestled with this dilemma. But now, with a criminal investigation into the contractor’s activities under way and a giant hole sucking up the ground in Hollywood, Stanley G. Phernambucq, the MTA’s new construction chief, had to come up with an answer.

“Sometimes you have to bite the bullet,” he said recently.

And he did just that, stepping onto center stage of the Los Angeles subway scene, pushing for the firing of Shea-Kiewit-Kenny.

A West Point graduate who holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from USC, Phernambucq worked for the Army Corps of Engineers for 22 years, supervising the building of a railroad in Brazil, the dredging of San Francisco Bay and the construction of the Red River navigation project in Louisiana. He is now determined to see that Los Angeles’ subway is completed without further ado.

Hired in June, he arrived from Mississippi with his wife and two teen-age sons on July 5 and started work on the 10th. His first week was one that the MTA will not soon forget.

“I’ll tell you, it was the hardest week I’ve ever worked,” said Phernambucq, a 46-year-old California native who left his Army job in Vicksburg, Miss., to take the MTA post.

“That decision was extremely important. It was close to the most important decision of my career. When you are the new guy and you are trying to advise the top guy, it’s a pretty big deal.”

It happened like this: A day after Phernambucq started at the MTA, federal agents conducted searches of Shea-Kiewit-Kenny’s offices in Hollywood and Walnut, looking for evidence that the builder might have lied to county officials about materials it used in building the subway tunnels. On July 12, MTA officials met to discuss whether to fire the contractor on the project, plagued with everything from road sinkage incidents to safety violations.

Then, 10 minutes into the meeting, Phernambucq (a Dutch name pronounced FERN-nam-buke) recommended that the MTA terminate the company’s $178.6-million contract--prompting a two-hour debate among staff.

MTA Chief Executive Officer Franklin E. White sided with his new construction chief. “It was a cumulative effect of many incidents,” White said of the decision to fire the firm.

The next day, Phernambucq got up at 5 a.m., dug his Civil War battle tie out of a moving box and went to work, meeting with reporters for the first time. Staring into half a dozen cameras, he said matter-of-factly: “The performance of the contractor has become suspect, so we believe it is in the best interest of the people of this county to terminate this contract.”

Some of his relatives didn’t even know he was back in town until they saw him on TV. And his mother wanted to know why he had taken such a trouble-plagued job. “Because it’s a challenge,” he told her.

Phernambucq, who grew up in Norwalk, was chosen to succeed Edward McSpedon, removed as construction chief in October when the federal government suspended funding for the subway after the ground beneath Hollywood Boulevard tunnel sank up to 10 inches.

He said he hadn’t even considered putting in for the $131,000-a-year position, supervising all of the MTA’s rail construction projects, until a headhunter called him a few months ago.

“I didn’t know much about it, I’ll be very honest with you,” he said. “I was very happy as a colonel in Mississippi. [The recruiter] said, ‘Well, let’s talk.’ I wouldn’t call her pushy, but she was sure firm. She was quite impressive.”

He decided to apply and was selected from a field of 100 candidates, narrowed to six finalists.

“I wanted a fresh face, someone not from the urban construction milieu, someone who would place greater stress on traditional controls and protection of the owner,” said White, who conducted a worldwide search to fill the position. “His corps experience would be good for us.”

Phernambucq, who married his junior high sweetheart, Jill, has spent much of the past two decades building infrastructure in North and South America, moving 23 times. During that time he has learned to wrangle with many contractors, occasionally firing them.

In 1979 he was an engineer for construction on a Brazilian railroad from Sao Paulo to Brasilia. In the mid-1980s, he supervised the construction of the Cerrillos Dam in Ponce, Puerto Rico. And in 1993, he took the job in Mississippi, overseeing flood control projects throughout the South.

“I just like building stuff,” Phernambucq said. “It’s a thrill for me, it’s my ego, if you will. It’s a chance to leave something important behind.”

An affable man who likes to wear theme ties (his favorite has little gold train engines embroidered on it), he speaks with a slight Southern twang, calling people “bubba” and occasionally saying “dadgum it.” After his difficult first week, he proclaimed that he was “puckered out.”

He is, by several accounts, well regarded among his former staff. “He’s outgoing, aggressive, quick,” said Roy Smith, who worked as Phernambucq’s assistant in Mississippi. “He doesn’t take long to make a decision. He’s consistent. He sets direction and he follows it.”

Although his toughest decision may be behind him, he still faces many obstacles ahead. The MTA board on Wednesday voted to go ahead and replace the firm building the Hollywood leg of the troubled subway project and divide the remaining tunnel work among other contractors.

“We know we’re supposed to change and we’ll change,” Phernambucq told MTA board members, meeting with them for the first time. “Our challenge is incredible.”

Privately, he said: “I come from an environment at West Point where it was duty, honor and country. Those are the principals I’m going to adhere to here. We are trying to do the county’s business and it’s a tough business. But people can expect that we are in charge.”

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Profile: Stanley G. Phernambucq

Phernambucq is the new MTA construction chief, who recommended firing the principal contractor on the Hollywood part of the subway.

* Born: Dec. 10, 1948

* Residence: Norwalk

* Education: Bachelor’s degree, U.S. Military Academy, West Point; master’s degree in civil engineering, USC.

* Career highlights: Worked for the Army Corps of Engineers for 22 years, supervising the building of a railroad in Brazil, the dredging of San Francisco Bay and the construction of the Red River navigation project in Louisiana.

* Interests: Camping and spending time with his family.

* Family: Married to his junior high school sweetheart, Jill. They have two teen-age sons.

* Quote: “Sometimes you have to bite the bullet.”