MTA MAY REVISE SUBWAY PLAN BY DECREASING TUNNEL BLASTING.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

Seeking to overcome homeowner opposition to building a subway to the San Fernando Valley, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials Monday proposed limiting the use of explosives beneath homes in the Runyon Canyon area of the Hollywood Hills.

The original plan called for the use of gel-based explosives for much of the tunnel's length to blast cross-passages and utility rooms that the tunneling machine wasn't equipped to handle.

The new proposal calls for special machines to do much of this work, although some blasting still would be needed.

Some Hollywood Hills residents said the project still was unacceptable, but backers said it offered a reasonable compromise.

"This is a major change, a major development that I think will be reassuring to residents," MTA board member Zev Yaroslavsky said Monday.

Yaroslavsky, who is also a Los Angeles County supervisor, said the change would add $5 million to the cost of the tunnel project, increasing the total to about $129 million. But he said it would save potential litigation costs by homeowners who have complained that the project could cause drainage and other problems in the area.

The proposal was endorsed by MTA staff members and other board members, including MTA board Chairman Larry Zarian of Glendale and county Supervisor Gloria Molina.

"Anytime we can do something, even that may cost a little bit, but that can alleviate some of the impact, I support it," Zarian said.

Molina added: "If it will minimize impacts on residents, that sounds reasonable to me."

Nate Brogin, chairman of the transportation committee of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, said the changes would be relatively inexpensive, and would help guarantee a subway linking the San Fernando Valley to the rest of the city.

"I don't think we have an effective (subway) system without a Red Line to the Valley," Brogin said, adding that Yaroslavsky's proposals sounded reasonable.

But opponents said they want the project stopped, and that Yaroslavsky's plan won't satisfy their concerns.

"The fact is we don't want a subway, period," said resident Patricia Marlatt. "The fact that they've reduced the impacts is OK, but it's still the same organization and they've lost credibility."

State Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, another opponent of the project, said the proposals are insignificant tweaks to an expensive, fatally flawed project.

"It's like making the passengers comfortable on a fiscal and moral Titanic," Hayden said. "The project is still going to drain the watershed, albeit at a slower rate, and they're still going to blast the Hollywood Hills, albeit only 12 hours a day. Call it nice."

County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, a board member and longtime subway opponent, said he would prefer to bring the rail project to ground level along Highland Avenue in Hollywood.

"The modifications being suggested would be additional costs to what is already the highest cost subway in the United States," Antonovich said.

The plan will require approval by the full MTA board. On Wednesday, the MTA board will consider condemning easements beneath 72 Hollywood Hills and Studio City properties along the tunnel route.

If approved, the MTA would use new technology in tunneling between Studio City and Hollywood, and would eliminate most blasting north of Runyon Canyon Park, he said.

The plan would result in less water drainage in the area - from 7.5 million gallons per day to around a sixth of that amount. The agency would hire botanists to make sure foliage wasn't dying, and also a 24-hour ombudsman to solve problems.

MTA project manager Charles Stark said the changes would add only three months to a project that is not expected to open until 2002. The overall cost for more than six miles of Red Line is about $1.31 billion.

"It's really not a major impact on the project and is more of a benefit for residents so there isn't a perceptible impact on them" from construction, Stark said.

Under Yaroslavsky's proposal, developed with tunneling experts the agency had hired last year to review its subway construction program, special machinery capable of digging tunnels at right angles to the main digger would cut side passages through the softer rock north of Solar Drive, where most of the houses are located, Yaroslavsky said.

Blasting still would be needed for utility rooms and cross tunnels in the very hard granite underlying Runyon Canyon Park, Yaroslavsky said, but even there, blasting schedules will be modified from 15 to 12 hours a day and tunnel builders will rely on more small blasts instead of fewer large ones.

The tunneling machines also would be modified to inject grouting in the rock around the tunnel face to substantially reduce the amount of water flowing into the tunnel in saturated areas, Yaroslavsky said.

The agency has been seeking state permits to remove up to 7.5 million gallons of water per day, Yaroslavsky said. The new maximum would be half that, but it likely would be about a sixth of that level with the changes, he said.