Repairs Again Delay Mountain Tunneling

A Metro Rail subway builder will delay the resumption of tunneling through the Santa Monica Mountains for at least another week because it must replace 22 more support arches weakened by settling ground, the county’s transit agency said Thursday.

The postponement is the third since the contractor’s digging machine became trapped in the mountains during the Fourth of July holiday. All told, 44 of four-inch tunnel arches must now be ripped out and replaced by stronger six-inch arches. That is double the previous reckoning and almost nine times the number the builder said would have to be replaced just two weeks ago.

The slowdown and additional repair cost will add to a bill that was already over budget well before the tunnel-boring machine, nicknamed Thelma by workers, got snagged in silt stone 940 feet into its 2.3-mile journey from Studio City to Hollywood.

According to figures released this week in a monthly report by the federal government, which foots half the bill for the subway construction, the cross-mountain tunnel was 51 days late and at least $4.3 million over budget by June 28. The report shows that the Indiana-based contractor--Traylor Bros./Frontier-Kemper--had also asked for an additional $6.7 million in payments.

Traylor Bros. won the job in 1994 with a bid of $124.4 million. If the changes pending through June 28 are approved, the cost will rise to $135.4 million.