Subway Tunnel Repair Bill May Increase Sharply

Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members last week allocated $2.5 million to shore up nearly half a mile of a subway tunnel under the Santa Monica Mountains--the first payment on a repair bill that could dramatically increase, according to documents recently released by the agency.

It was the first indication of the cost of an embarrassing construction mishap after parts of the tunnel shrank four to six inches in a tricky section of soft shale, trapping a giant digging machine about 220 feet below homes in the Cahuenga Pass.

The cost could more than double if the MTA accepts an analysis commissioned by the excavation contractor that concluded the area’s rock was up to 10 times weaker than the agency’s engineering consultants had told miners to expect.

The analysis, performed by highly regarded geologist Ronald E. Heuer of Illinois, found that while the MTA contract called for rock in the area to have a compressive strength of at least 1,000 pounds per square inch, it actually appeared to have a strength of 100 to 300 pounds per square inch.

“These materials are more like ‘soil,’ rather than ‘rock,’ ” Heuer wrote in his report.

He added: “In my judgment, the tunnel driven to date could not be adequately supported” by methods specified in MTA contract documents.

Although the tunnel had suffered minor cave-ins almost daily in June, according to Metro Rail records, digging only halted July 8 after miners discovered that expanding ground had severely buckled five of the 4-inch-wide metal ribs supporting the excavation.

Indiana-based contractor Traylor Bros./Frontier-Kemper ultimately was forced to replace 44 of the tunnel’s 4-inch metal support ribs with stronger, 6-inch-wide ribs, according to records. To keep the tunnel safe, records show that the contractor had to spray thousands of cubic yards of costly fiber-enhanced concrete onto the walls and roof.

Traylor Bros. was also instructed to take the extra precaution of strengthening the tunnel’s walls by drilling dozens of staple-like metal dowels into them, the records show.

In many places, miners have also doubled the number of ribs supporting the excavation--installing the metal beams every two feet rather than every four feet as called for in the tunnel’s design specifications.

Documents released with the appropriation last week indicate that the repairs were not limited to a 180-foot section of the tunnel, as announced by officials during the summer, but instead will stretch 2,450 feet.

The tunnel, and a twin being built alongside, is scheduled to ferry commuters 2.3 miles through the hills from the San Fernando Valley to Hollywood by October 2000.

Metro Rail officials said that they have not yet completed an investigation into the cause of the problem. If the contractor is found to have caused the mishap by failing to support the tunnel properly, it will be ordered to pay.

If MTA engineering is found to have been at fault, then taxpayers will have to foot the bill. In addition to the $2.5 million allocated so far just for materials, the MTA would have to pay the contractor for costs associated with the delay. Industry experts peg the amount at $40,000 a day over a minimum of six weeks.

In addition, agency documents report that the MTA would have to pay the contractor for repairs and modifications to its tunnel-boring machine.

Metro Rail officials were unavailable for comment Friday.

The tunneling project is barely one-third complete, but it is already forecast to cost as much as $34.4 million more than original estimates, a 27% hike, according to documents.

About $5.6 million of the added costs were the result of a consent decree signed by the MTA to settle a suit filed by environmentalists concerned that the tunnel would drain millions of gallons of water from the hillside. The MTA added $1.8 million to the bill when it gave in to area residents’ demand to bar the contractor from blasting, rather than digging, seven passages between the tunnels with explosives.

Documents show that Metro Rail officials believe Traylor is likely to seek at least an additional $9 million before work is completed. If all requests for payment are approved, the final invoice for the work would be $158.9 million, the records show.

The added costs come at a time when Congress has slashed the transit agency’s funding, and MTA officials are looking for projects to cut.

The repairs have also figured in the heated debate over which construction management the MTA board should hire to supervise tunneling on the Eastside. The decision is scheduled for next Wednesday.

JMA, the North Hollywood-based consortium managing the hillside tunneling, was ranked first by a panel of seven independent construction experts for the Eastside job. MTA Chief Executive Joseph E. Drew reversed the experts’ judgment last week, recommending that the board instead award the $65-million contract to the Encino-based team Metro East Consultants.

Without elaborating, Drew cited “performance issues” with JMA when stating his belief that the firm had its hands full in the mountains. JMA officials counter that the MTA has never complained to them about their work. On Thursday, MTA tunneling consultant Z. Daniel Eisenstein told agency board members in a committee hearing that he now considers the Hollywood Hills tunnel a “masterpiece.”

Drew’s choice of Metro East, which is headed by engineering giant O’Brien-Kreitzberg, proved controversial because the consortium was ranked last by the experts panel, has one partner implicated in tunneling failures along Hollywood Boulevard and another with close ties to Los Angeles City Council member and influential MTA board member Richard Alatorre.

One Metro East subcontractor, whose president has raised campaign funds for Alatorre, is the subject of federal scrutiny into mismanagement of a U.S. Commerce Department contract.

U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) said Friday that he would launch a congressional investigation of Drew’s decision if JMA is not given the Eastside contract Wednesday and reconsider his support for federal funding for the subway as well.

On Friday, George Kiefer, an attorney for Bechtel Infrastructure Corp., the firm ranked second by the panel of experts, praised Drew’s decision to disqualify JMA but said the MTA board should choose his team instead.

“There are plenty of questions about whether JMA would be spread too thin,” he said.