Tunnel Consultants Defend Findings : MTA: Panelists say transit agency could exert more control by buying its own earth-moving machines.

An international panel of tunneling experts defended its report Friday, declaring Los Angeles a safe place for subways and proclaiming underground trains more “environmentally friendly” than surface trains, as well as one of the best ways to travel during earthquakes.

Speaking before fewer than half of the 26 directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the three experts expanded on their finding that the Los Angeles subways are so far among the most economically built in the world--up to three times cheaper than similar systems built in Germany.

They also suggested that the MTA staff evince more “ownership” of subway construction and consider buying high-tech tunneling machines that it now expects its contractors to possess.

But County Supervisor Mike Antonovich dismissed their findings as a “fig leaf that covers up the true cost of construction,” and took a swipe at the experts by comparing them to “consultants who know 40 different ways to make love but have never been on a date.” He also berated them for withholding the report’s 100-page appendix, which is said to contain more specific findings, and complained that the study should have investigated the cost of ditching the subways in favor of surface trains.

One of the experts, Z. Daniel Eisenstein, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Alberta, watched Antonovich’s tirade with crossed arms, then shot back with a smile, “I, for one, have dated.” He said the appendix had only been withheld for more editing, and that a subway-versus-trains cost analysis was not within the scope of the report. Board member Nikolas Patsaouras also took the experts to task for examining tunneling methods that the MTA has used until now without making specific recommendations for the future. “I’m appalled that we paid $150,000 to study the past--I already know what mistakes we made,” he said.

The report actually cost $170,000--about 80% more than estimated, according to sources. Requested by Mayor Richard Riordan in August after tunneling caused a sinkhole in Hollywood, it was intended to determine whether soil and seismic conditions in Los Angeles made it harder and more expensive to tunnel here than in other cities.

Riordan, a frequent critic of the transit agency’s management, did not attend the panel’s discussion, billed as a rail workshop. That drew the ire of board Chairman Larry Zarian, who repeatedly said he was “dismayed” that so few board members showed up.

With Eisenstein on the panel were Geoffrey R. Martin, chairman of the USC civil engineering department, and Harvey W. Parker, a senior vice president at the Seattle-based geotechnical consulting firm Shannon & Wilson. To research the report, they met in Los Angeles three times, then collaborated via Internet e-mail as Eisenstein spent much of the time at a university in his native Czech Republic.

MTA Chief Executive Franklin E. White lauded their report, stating that it “puts to rest the abusive comments . . . by people with no data” that the agency had been “raping Los Angeles.”

Despite their generally sunny tone, however, the authors had some stern recommendations for ways the transit agency should review its contracting procedures.

Eisenstein said the MTA should consider “prescribing” the tunneling equipment to be used by contractors, rather than letting them decide what to use. The latter method, he said, leads to low bids but sometimes expensive change orders. If the agency were to demand that contractors use more expensive “earth-pressure balance” machines rather than the current closed or open-shield machines, it would need to do less “messy” grouting and experience fewer ground-settlement problems.

Eisenstein said cities such as Toronto had even gone so far as to buy their own earth-pressure balance tunneling machines, which cost $3 million to $4 million more than the $6-million subterranean tools used by the MTA’s contractors. Even though the costs were initially higher, the savings were “demonstrable,” he said. Then he quipped: “You can get them cheaper if you buy them used.”

The Canadian professor also said the MTA should more actively enforce its specifications on projects by hiring two or three additional staff members with advanced technical knowledge. Rejecting the MTA practice of letting consultants direct tunnel construction, Eisenstein said “control should rest with the owner directly--that’s the practice worldwide.”