Alameda Corridor Project Delays May Add to Traffic Woes

Despite officials’ repeated assurances that the $2-billion Alameda Corridor project is on schedule, construction of its northern section has been delayed at least 10 months, complicating efforts to reduce traffic congestion and other problems associated with building the new transportation link between downtown and the county’s ports.

The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, the government agency responsible for the enormous project, originally wanted construction on the north end of the 20-mile route to begin by this spring, so that it could be finished as major work started on the largest phase--a railway running below ground level down to the harbor.

Transportation authority officials now say that construction of a railroad bridge, street improvements and train crossings in Los Angeles and Vernon will not begin until March or April. As a result, there could be considerable overlap with work on the trench section.

The schedule change may be particularly hard on Vernon, an industrial city with a population that swells from about 200 to 55,000 as commuting workers enter during the day. Commerce in the city relies heavily on surface streets.

Vernon officials, who are negotiating with the authority over ways to reduce construction’s impact on their city, say all major thoroughfares into town will be seriously disrupted because the north end projects and the trench section will now be built at the same time.

“The fact that they are not proceeding as they told the world they were proceeding makes us wonder how tight a grip they have on this project,” said Michael S. Gagan, a spokesman and lobbyist for Vernon. “They told everybody it was imperative to start the north end project on time to meet their 2001 operation date.”

Authority officials maintain that the project is running smoothly, and say any delay in the north end will not interfere with the projected completion of the entire corridor by 2001.

When finished, the route is expected to greatly improve the shipment of goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to rail yards downtown. A 10-mile section of the corridor will be constructed in a trench three stories deep.

“Individual projects will be delayed, but these delays are not important to the overall program,” said Gill V. Hicks, the authority’s general manager. “There was always going to be some overlap” of the trench and north end phases, he said.

County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Jonathan Y. Thomas, both members of the authority’s board, also said they were not worried about the delays because the overall program is still on schedule, and ways might be found to speed construction on other parts of the corridor.

But their colleague on the board, Jeffrey Kellogg, a Long Beach city councilman, said he is concerned about delays because of the project’s aggressive schedule for completion.

“Any delays or change orders are hot buttons with me, because time is money with this project,” Kellogg said. “We have a tight time frame and we want to meet that time frame. With a project of this magnitude you are going to see problems throughout the entire project, but we will address them and keep moving forward.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. General Accounting Office warned in a congressional report that the corridor agency might have set unrealistic deadlines for finishing the project. Delays were likely, the report cautioned, which could increase the project’s total cost.

At the time, authority officials downplayed the report, saying that many of the issues raised by the study had already been anticipated and planned for.

Among the north end projects that have been delayed is a bridge at Redondo Junction in Los Angeles, which has been stalled because the Santa Fe Railroad wants to realign some tracks.

Authority officials say that problems acquiring rights of way in the north end have delayed construction of new crossings and street improvements on Washington Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue.

Hicks said he is confident that any potential increase in traffic congestion and construction problems caused by the delays will be solved during ongoing discussions with Vernon.

The authority and Vernon are trying to work out a formal agreement that will detail specifically how construction’s impact, such as the disruption of traffic, will be reduced in the city. Such memorandums of understanding already have been worked out with other cities along the corridor’s path.

Vernon officials contend that the simultaneous construction of the trench and north end projects could seriously snarl traffic moving along the city’s east-west streets, such as 37th Street, Vernon Avenue and Slauson Avenue. The north-south streets that could be affected include Alameda Street, Santa Fe Avenue and Soto Street.

Vernon officials say the construction overlap of the trench section and north end projects now is expected to last 18 to 24 months.

“There are going to be problems. This is a complicated type of construction and it needs thoughtful mitigation measures,” Gagan said. “We need to make things as convenient as possible during construction. An open trench that is three stories deep is hard to miss.”

So far, Gagan said, the corridor authority has not been forthcoming with detailed traffic management plans, or with information on what routes will be used to haul dirt out of the city.

“They can’t guarantee the flow of traffic during construction,” Gagan said. “They have known for three years that the north end projects have to be built. Three years have come and gone, and we have no assurances that our concerns will be dealt with.”

Kellogg and Burke questioned Vernon officials’ contention that construction of the trench section would seriously affect the city. They suggested that the sequence of construction could be rearranged to reduce potential problems.

“This is all speculation on Vernon’s part,” Kellogg said. “You don’t have to start the trench at the northern end. You can start at either end.”