MTA to Resume Troubled Hollywood Tunnel Project

Ever since a house-sized sinkhole became the unofficial symbol of Los Angeles subway construction, the unfinished tunnels under Hollywood have been eerily silent as transit officials have labored to repair the political damage caused by the June 22 mishap.

Work is now ready to proceed on the tunnels under Hollywood Boulevard and Vermont Avenue--seven months after the MTA’s most embarrassing setback--but the cost of completing the job has almost tripled. It could cost as much as $68.5 million.

And as more than 250 workers prepare to return underground this month, they’ll be doing more than digging out 21,000 tons of debris at the sinkhole site and pouring concrete for both tunnels: The political fortunes of the region’s biggest and most maligned public works project also rest with them.

“Every day I tell my people: One good screw up and we’re outta here,” said construction chief Stanley Phernambucq of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, admitting that the project was “in shambles” before last July’s firing of the tunnel contractor.

MTA officials say the cost of completing the 12 miles of tunnels could be $68.5 million--almost triple the original $24 million price tag. Officials say they are seeking to recover the additional costs from fired contractor Shea-Kiewit-Kenny, which, in turn, is suing the agency for wrongful termination.

“We are preserving the right to go after SKK [in court] for malfeasance,” said Joseph Drew, the MTA’s interim chief executive officer.

Since the $5.8-billion, 22-mile project got underway in 1986, only 3.2 miles between Union Station and MacArthur Park has been put into operation. A two-mile extension to Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue is due to open this summer. But no one is likely to take a subway ride to Hollywood until the end of 1998 or early 1999.

Meantime, changing financial and political conditions here and in Washington, where half of the subway funds are coming from, are raising new questions about when--or if--the subway will be extended to the Eastside, to the mid-city and across the San Fernando Valley. Less expensive above-ground rail lines might be considered.

To shore up political support for the project, changes have been made, including replacing the tunnel contractor and strengthening MTA’s oversight. But at the now paved-over site of the sinkhole on Hollywood Boulevard near Barnsdall Park, business owners and residents are still leery about the second coming of Metro Rail.

“What I think is really sad is that those of us who have served this community for so long are probably not going to make it if there are any more negative impacts,” said Bruce Ziskin, owner of a 30-year-old Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. He is bitter that the MTA has refused to compensate him for economic damage caused when traffic was diverted because of the sinkhole. He fears that when the MTA resumes work, he will again lose business.

*

“They’re going to tear that street up again?” asked Daniel Hazen, owner of Ozzie Dots clothing on Hollywood Boulevard. “This is ruining my business. It’s just been a nightmare.”

The MTA plans to keep two lanes of Hollywood Boulevard closed at the sinkhole site for nine more months while workers dig out 1,400 truckloads of debris blocking one of the tunnels.

“We’ll be working from the street surface, excavating, pouring concrete . . . and then back filling and restoring the street,” said Stephen J. Polechronis, the MTA’s new deputy executive overseeing the Hollywood subway project.

City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, whose district includes a large part of the subway route, vowed: “We’re going to be watching them very closely,”

Although the MTA has encountered other delays--from explosions to flooding--this has been the longest and most extensive work stoppage in the tunnels, which run 65 feet below Vermont Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. A handful of workers has pumped out water and performed other maintenance duties in the tunnels, but no tunnel work has taken place since SKK’s termination.

MTA Board Chairman Larry Zarian said extra crews are being put on the job in an effort to keep the December 1998 opening date for the Hollywood leg. But the delays have cost the agency money (the Hollywood leg is $100 million over budget) and political support.

The latest fallout has resulted in the same thing that happens to motorists who have been involved in too many accidents: Argonaut Insurance Co., citing the MTA’s legal problems and “the public’s dissatisfaction with the construction,” is canceling the agency’s insurance effective June 30. Transit chief Drew said he believes that the agency will be able to continue coverage by consolidating different policies.

Prosecutors were still presenting their case against O.J. Simpson when subway crews--trying to fix a misalignment in the tunnel--spotted a water leak. Eventually, an 80-foot hole opened up in the street, and the tunnel collapsed.

Three weeks after the sinkhole developed, the MTA fired tunnel contractor SKK. After a study blamed faulty design work for the mishap, an engineering consultant was removed from the project. The study found that engineers broke from standard practice by planning the tunnel realignment without adequate supports.

The agency recently divided the remaining work in the Hollywood and Vermont tunnels among two subway station contractors, even though one of them, Tutor/Saliba/Perini, was faulted for a wide range of problems on the now open downtown leg of the subway. MTA officials believe that the contractor has improved its operation.

Except for the collapsed 80-foot section at the sinkhole, tunneling has been completed on the Hollywood leg. The concrete liner now must be installed.

Many of the same tunnel workers who were on the job when the sinkhole occurred are expected to return.

While officials are still negotiating a final figure, the cost of completing the tunnels is expected to be “no more than” $68.5 million. That is nearly triple what fired contractor SKK was to receive for finishing the job.

Officials say the cost will be higher because new contractors will face uncertainty about the quality of work done by SKK. Additionally, the new contractors must build some profit into their bids. The old contractor had already taken out its profit during the early stages of the project.

The MTA limited the competition for a new tunnel contractor to the other companies already on the job.

But only two of the four contractors invited to bid decided to take part, and Polechronis acknowledged that the project’s shaky history probably hurt interest.

*

“We just preferred not to have any further dealings with the whole bunch because of their track record,” said a contracting executive who asked not be identified. The executive refused to elaborate on specific problems his firm had encountered in the MTA construction operation, saying only: “Let’s just put it this way--it has to do with trust.”

Additionally, Polechronis explained, opening up the bidding to more competition would have delayed subway station construction and increased the cost even more.

Officials believe that it is easier to coordinate both jobs--station construction and tunnel work--if the same contractor is supervising all the work. “If we force a station contractor to make way for a new tunneling contractor, we would have to pay delay costs,” said Polechronis.

Watching the project with particular indignation are executives at SKK. John Shea, SKK’s top official, said that the company should never have been fired and that taxpayers will pay the price.

SKK’s surety, in an effort to settle its dispute with the MTA, offered to complete the tunneling job for less than the agency now plans to pay.

Transit officials have complained that the fired contractor substituted what were considered substandard wooden wedges in place of steel supports--a procedure that has been blamed for ground sinkage and damage to buildings on Hollywood Boulevard. Federal authorities are investigating whether criminal conduct may have been involved.

But SKK officials have contended that the wooden wedges did not cause the sinkage.

Transit chief Drew scoffed at the agency becoming partners with SKK again, equating it with political suicide.

“Go out publicly and tell the world we’ve forgiven [SKK] for the wooden wedges? I’d run a red flag to the top of this [25-story] building and then go up and tell everyone to shoot,” said Drew.

Shea in turn criticized MTA’s repair plans for the sinkhole site as “another wasteful and ill-considered decision.”

He says SKK should have been allowed to fix the sinkhole using a “freeze” technique--turning the ground to ice and mining through it--instead of digging from the street above and then filling in after repairing the tunnel. MTA officials say the freeze method is too risky and unproven.