Valley Busway Project Is Months Behind

The construction of the San Fernando Valley’s Orange Line busway, which has been plagued by litigation, design issues and the discovery of contaminated soil, is now nearly four months behind schedule, officials said.

Though Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials still say the transit line will open in August 2005, they acknowledge the $329.5-million project is falling further behind each day.

Unless there is a major change in the agency’s construction plan -- such as paying crews overtime to work around the clock -- it will be virtually impossible for the busway to be completed on time, officials say.

Since the latest 24-day construction stoppage, which had been ordered by a court, ended two weeks ago, the MTA has not been able to get enough workers to return to the site.

“We’re having trouble remobilizing,” said Rick Thorpe, chief capital management officer for the MTA. “We have subcontractors who have taken on other work. We don’t know when we’ll get them back.”

Last week, only 25% of the Orange Line’s workers actually worked. This week, staffing remains at less than 50%.

Falling behind on a big project is costly to the MTA. Consultants bill more hours, equipment leases must be extended and agency staff cannot move on to other projects.

But it is also expensive to pay overtime to speed up construction. MTA officials are trying to figure out the cost of accelerating the project versus doing nothing to reduce delays.

The 14-mile busway, which will stretch from the North Hollywood Red Line subway station to Warner Center in Woodland Hills, roughly parallels the Ventura Freeway. The MTA projects the Orange Line will serve 20,000 riders a day.

Early this year, the MTA repeatedly halted construction on the project because hazardous levels of arsenic and lead were detected in the soil and had to be removed.

Additional delays resulted from a contractor submitting unsatisfactory design plans.

In August, a citizens group successfully sued to suspend construction. A state appellate panel issued a temporary injunction after finding that the MTA had failed to adequately consider alternatives. The order dissolved when the court’s jurisdiction ended.

The MTA has appealed the underlying case to the California Supreme Court. In the meantime, the citizens group filed a request with the same court Friday to seek another order to halt the busway’s construction.

“We do not want them to build the Orange Line. It is a waste of taxpayers’ money,” said Diana Lipari, chairwoman of Citizens Organized for Smart Transit, which contends a network of rapid buses on regular streets would better serve riders than a bus-only corridor. “The MTA should not have started construction knowing the litigation was pending.”