Miners Rise to Challenge of Tunnel Work

They gather from the four winds. Oregon. Ukraine. New Mexico. Pakistan. Compton. Wherever there is a tunnel to be dug, miners and mine managers arrive to apply their talents and souls to the task. Today, some of the most challenging work is going on beneath the east San Fernando Valley. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is burrowing twin subway tunnels--one for northbound trains, the other for those southbound--under Lankershim Boulevard from Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood to

Universal City. The tunnels will then bend slightly east and slip through Santa Monica Mountains bedrock en route to a future station in Hollywood. In the “hole,” as miners call the tunnels, the noise is deafening and the potential for injury frightening. Even the approach to the tunnels is dizzying, as workers climb down 80 sheer vertical feet of ladders to reach the tunnels. But the pay is good so the miners are happy to gather here for a year or more to ease the rush-hour commute one day for those who labor above ground.