Board OKs Additional Dam Inspection Work

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to spend $50,000 to investigate earthquake damage at Pacoima Dam.

The board passed the motion without discussion. The action comes more than one year after the board approved payments of more than $350,000 for similar work.

Harry Stone, head of Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Works, has said the additional work to be performed by San Francisco-based Morrison Knudsen Corp. was not anticipated at the time the first contract was signed last year.

The dam is in Angeles National Forest above the San Fernando Valley.

In August 1995, the board approved a $351,700 contract to analyze the stability of the dam, including determining whether additional repairs were necessary to fortify the left abutment of the dam after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The $51,645 approved by the board Tuesday will pay for making maps of the dam, field inspection and consulting during exploratory drilling, grouting and drain hole drilling concurrently performed by county employees.

Donna Guyovich, a spokeswoman for public works, said the department could not estimate how much work it would take to determine the extent of the damage.

“During the first contract, we had to estimate the cost of what we thought was needed to finish,” she said. “ You are not going to know how much it is going to cost until you get into the work.”