And now rebuilding of the infrastructure begins in Southland.

While Southern California residents and businesses dealt with death, destruction, injuries and inconvenience last week, government agencies dealt with what Gov. Pete Wilson's office estimated was $500-million damage to the public roads and facilities that make up the area's infrastructure.

Most public officials were counting on the U.S. government to foot the bill for getting the Los Angeles area back up on its feet, and President Bill Clinton released $45 million to get the transportation repairs started, pledging to go to Congress for more.

Still, Clinton noted, there is a matching funds requirement of 25 percent for federal disaster funds, but it may be waived down to 10 percent.

Jim Roberts, chief bridge engineer with the California Department of Transportation, said the cost to repair bridges on state highways will exceed $100 million alone -- money Caltrans is hoping will come from the federal government.

Caltrans officials are now estimating they will have all the freeway bridges fixed in less than a year. Demolition crews are working around the clock, and Roberts said as soon as they are finished (another two weeks maximum), construction contractors will be in place.

The federal government has given Caltrans permission to bypass normal advertising and bidding requirements and simply negotiate directly with contractors, speeding up the process considerably, Roberts noted.

Plus, Caltrans employees will further speed up construction timetables by finishing designs while foundations are being laid.

"We'll complete the plans as the contractor works his way up," said Roberts. "We're committed to having everything done by the end of the year."

Meanwhile, Caltrans bridge inspectors from Northern California were in town last week helping local inspectors check out all freeway bridges for safety.

In addition to the repairs, Caltrans over the next three years will complete retrofitting of the 800-plus remaining freeway bridges across the state at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake, of which there are more than 300 in the L.A. Basin, Roberts said.

Money for the retrofitting will come from the state highway fund, which has already budgeted $750 million for the work statewide. Another $650 million has been budgeted from toll road funds to retrofit toll bridges in other parts of the state.

Roberts said retrofitting will be completed in the L.A. area by the end of 1995 and throughout the state by the end of 1996. Then Caltrans will move on to another 3,200 bridges "that we don't think would collapse, but could sustain damage," Roberts said.

All the damage to freeways meant greater demand for public transportation. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority responded by temporarily adding bus and rail trips.

MTA spokesman Bill Hurd said the earthquake caused no damage to the city's new subway system -- either to tunnels that are operational or under construction.

The Red Line, however, was closed Monday to allow for inspections following significant aftershocks. There also were delays on the Blue Line Monday when power lines came loose and had to be reattached, Hurd said.

MTA spokesman Steve Chesser said there was some damage to MTA depots and maintenance areas, and some costs connected with employee overtime, but they hadn't been calculated by press time.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works said it will cost about $550,000 to repair 19 county roads damaged in the quake, including 11 that remained closed as of Jan. 20.

If the federal government doesn't pay the bill, the county will use road maintenance funds and delay other maintenance work and projects, she said.

Damage to county bridges was estimated at another $600,000, with no estimates available on total damage to county flood control facilities and water-supply system.

The county planned to open a one-stop business permitting center at its Valencia office on Jan. 24.

County spokeswoman Judy Hammond said 41 county buildings were damaged in the quake, most of them libraries.

Gayle Anderson, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, said Hollywood and North Hollywood were the hardest hit of the CRA's project areas. She said a loan program is already in place in Hollywood that makes funds available for repairing historic structures and that program would apply to people repairing earthquake damage to buildings of historical significance. Anderson said she also believed that Federal Emergency Management Agency funds would be available to repair Hollywood damage, and she did not expect that agency funds would be transferred from other projects to earthquake repairs.

California cities and special districts needing emergency funds to deal with the earthquake were told by state Treasurer Kathleen Brown that they could withdraw money from the state's investment fund immediately, if necessary to pay bills. The City of San Marino was first to take advantage of the opportunity and had $100,000 wired to its city hall from Brown's office on the morning of Jan. 19.