Nighttime Subway Work Is Barred

Dealing yet another setback to the Los Angeles subway project, the Police Commission on Tuesday ordered a halt to nighttime work at a Metro Rail construction site in Hollywood in response to neighbors’ complaints about noise.

The commission also issued a stinging rebuke of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its contractor for their “self-serving attitude” toward neighbors of the construction site.

“Ask yourselves if in July, August, September, October, November and December, you had not had a good night’s sleep, what would you be like today?” City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg told the commission on behalf of her constituents.

Residents have endured night after night of noise so loud that talking on the telephone, watching television and sleeping were all but impossible, Goldberg said.

“Frankly,” she said, “sleep deprivation is a form of torture.”

MTA officials could not immediately say how the action would affect the region’s biggest public works project, which is already behind schedule and over budget.

Goldberg acknowledged that merchants would not be pleased to have construction shifted to the daytime, but she and residents said the MTA and its contractor had not kept promises to reduce nighttime noise, such as ending the use of beepers that construction vehicles use while backing up.

MTA spokesman Steve Chesser said the agency would speak to Goldberg about shifting work to the daytime. The agency had previously agreed to limit work to the nighttime so as not to disrupt businesses. Chesser said the agency also would continue with the noise-reduction measures “in the hopes that we can get another noise variance.”

The commission voted to revoke a permit for Yucca Street and McCadden Place to be used at night as a construction staging area by contractor Tutor-Saliba-Perini. The contractor is building the $70-million subway station at Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.

Douglas Eakin, a resident of the nearby Rita Apartments on Las Palmas Avenue, called the situation outrageous, and another resident, Randy Cooper, said the sound exceeded legal limits as recently as midnight Monday. A Goldberg aide said the LAPD’s noise enforcement team has made more than 25 visits to the apartment house.

Charles Stark, MTA project manager for the area, expressed regret for any inconvenience, but appealed to the commission not to shut down the project. He asked that the MTA be given time to install double-paned windows and other noise-reduction measures.

Commissioner Edith Perez, shuffling through copies of the correspondence regarding the area, demanded to know why no action had been taken sooner.

“What’s wrong with this picture?” she said, glaring at Stark, who responded that transit officials initially thought they could solve the problem by improving a sound blanket near the apartments.

That had not worked, Stark conceded, but he still asked for more time.

Commissioner Herbert F. Boeckmann accused the agency of mistreating its neighbors.

“I’m building a home in Malibu, and I do more to be courteous to my neighbors during the day than you do at night,” he said, adding that he was bothered by Stark’s “self-serving attitude.” Stark sat silently.

Perez called the MTA’s failure to respond to Goldberg’s requests “tremendously irresponsible and appalling.”

Stark infuriated some commissioners by suggesting that the nighttime construction ban would cost taxpayers $450,000 to $500,000 in delays.

Jack Vaughn, resident manager at the Rita Apartments, said residents planned to hold a party Tuesday night “and then we’re all going to sleep.”