Clouds Over the Coliseum : Questions on safety of repairs should be faced fully and quickly

It’s a little frightening, now, to consider the stealthy gall some folks had during the earthquake renovation of the Los Angeles Coliseum. Some concrete and steel beams, it’s been reported, were made stronger than necessary so as to create a frame capable of supporting new “skyboxes.” That wasn’t what the federal government had in mind when it approved repairs--and not major improvements--to damaged public facilities. We wonder what inspections might have uncovered if the folks overseeing the reconstruction hadn’t tried to be so clever.

A current inspection will be continued today in an effort to assess the structural soundness of the Coliseum’s newly completed press box .J.J. scant hours before a crowd will gather for an exhibition soccer match. The press box spans about 40 yards and sits above hundreds of midfield-area seats. The Coliseum fans sitting beneath it are expected to be safe--unless, perhaps, there’s a major earthquake.

A Times investigation and inspection of the press box have found evidence of weld problems such as “delayed cracking.” This is sometimes indicative of a weld’s susceptibility to fracturing in an earthquake. The cracking might also mean that even welds with no observable flaws are brittle.

Our source for concern is authoritative: a California Institute of Technology engineer who also is an advisor to the White House Office of Science and Technology on national earthquake strategy. That expert, John F. Hall, says that the press box area “needs top-to-bottom testing,” adding that “there is reason to doubt that the welds supporting the structure” would be adequate during a large temblor. One of the men who worked on the welds was a bit blunter: “I wouldn’t sit under it.” But nobody should have any doubts, insists the Smith-Emery Co., which inspected the welds last year. The numerous problems found then have since been repaired, says Smith-Emery, which is also conducting the current inspection.

That does not provide adequate reassurance, not when the firm has yet to certify that the steel work was properly done; the lack of certification is preventing the city from issuing an occupancy permit for a press box that is already in use. Nor is it reassuring to hear questions about whether the materials used during the rebuilding were too brittle for heavy-duty construction or that the Coliseum project’s structural engineer was never told about weld problems found in earlier inspections. Over all this hangs the deeply troubling question that many had hoped could be averted in the numerous major rebuilding projects made necessary by the devastating quake of 1994: Was the work properly done?

Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke is demanding to know why the Coliseum press box has not been certified. We think that Burke and her colleagues need to know far more than that about a $100-million renovation project that tripled initial cost estimates at a facility that still figures significantly as an L.A. sporting and entertainment venue.