Costly Problems Plague MTA : Lack of preparation, oversight on Red Line project inexcusable

Last week’s announcement that crews have finished digging twin subway tunnels under North Hollywood should have been good news. But, in what seems to be a trend with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s troubled Red Line project, the good news was overshadowed by the bad.

The final bill for the two-mile tunnel between North Hollywood and Universal City is more than $20 million over its $65-million budget. Plus, the contractor is asking the MTA for an extra $42 million to cover delays it claims were caused by poor engineering. Business owners whose buildings along Lankershim Boulevard were damaged by sinking ground are unhappy with the MTA’s response.

All this, and the project is only half finished.

Over the next five years, crews will finish the tunnels with concrete, burrow under the Santa Monica Mountains, lay tracks and build stations to connect the segment with existing Red Line sections. If the current cost overruns and side effects are any indication, it will be a very long and costly five years.

MTA properly commended employees of the tunneling contractor--Obayashi Corp.--for not losing a single work day to accidents and for boring under the Los Angeles River without affecting the channel’s concrete lining. But for such a bill we would expect a job well done. Workers for another contractor tunneling under the Santa Monica Mountains, meanwhile, struggled last week to free a giant boring machine stuck when one of the tunnels settled.

MTA officials promise that when the Valley’s subway is up and running sometime after 2001, the setbacks will seem minor. Business owners who may be forced to close will likely disagree. So, too, might taxpayers footing the bill. Promises of future mobility and convenience don’t excuse the lack of planning and effective oversight that seem to plague the project.