Businesses Blame Damages on MTA Subway Tunneling

A half dozen businesses along Lankershim Boulevard filed insurance claims against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority this week, charging that subway tunneling damaged their properties, officials said Friday.

The claims followed the closure Monday of El Sombrero nightclub for safety reasons after the owner complained that MTA tunneling caused cracks and sunken floors on the property.

The new claims, submitted to Argonaut Insurance Co. in Los Angeles, include complaints by local businesses that tunneling caused damages such as new cracks and broken windows on their properties.

MTA officials said Friday they remain unconvinced that tunneling caused the damages. The portion of Lankershim Boulevard outside the businesses was stabilized with a cement-like substance as a precautionary measure until the claims can be investigated, officials said.

“We are not sure at all that our construction has caused these incidents,” said Andrea Greene, an MTA spokeswoman. “We’re still trying to determine that.”

But critics of the MTA’s Metro Rail project were convinced the damages had to stem from tunneling last week.

The problems along Lankershim Boulevard are similar to those that previously caused a huge sinkhole along Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, said Gerald Schneiderman, chairman of Hollywood Damage Control & Recovery Inc., an organization representing nearly 1,400 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the MTA seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

Schneiderman said the tunneling project is hurting businesses by causing physical damages to buildings as well as disturbing customer access. Some businesses may be forced to close down, he said.

“It’s having disastrous effects,” he said. “It’s pretty serious.”

Schneiderman said the owner of El Sombrero, Isabel Lopez, is losing thousands of dollars until repairs can be made and may have to wait many weeks before she can reopen, if it all.

The MTA is simply delaying the inevitable by waiting to accept blame for the Lankershim Boulevard damages, he charged.

“What else could have happened?” he asked. “How can they be so preposterous?”