Metro Rail woes raise doubts about valley extension.

Recent problems with the multibillion-dollar Metro Rail project, such as the Hollywood sinkhole and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's firing of a major contractor, are threatening to delay the planned rail extension into the San Fernando Valley. Such a delay could turn the valley into a transportation nightmare, crippling residential and business growth, according to valley business and community leaders.

"There is growing skepticism and a major loss of faith in the MTA and of all and any future rail projects," said Laura Chick, the Los Angeles City Council representative for much of the San Fernando Valley. A lack of rail service, she said, would devastate the valley.

"It would end up being a gridlocked, bedroom community whose residents wouldn't be able to get anywhere. And what businesses would want to locate there ... when their products wouldn't be able to grow?" she said.

Bringing mass-transit rail to the San Fernando Valley has been debated for a decade, with arguments still raging over whether an elevated rail system or subway should be built. Meanwhile, cost estimates continue to skyrocket.

At issue now is the extension of the Metro Red Line, which would connect the valley to Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire and downtown Los Angeles. The $632 million valley extension project is designed to begin at the intersection of Lankershim and Chandler boulevards and run westward along Chandler Boulevard and Oxnard Street for four miles, to Hazeltine Avenue.

At Hazeltine, the subway extension would become elevated light rail for the next two miles, stretching to the San Diego (405) Freeway. Eventually, the extension would stretch west of the 405 - over to Warner Center, the valley's major business core.

Woes spur doubts

But new doubts about the future of that ambitious extension are being raised because the MTA has been wracked with problems. Most recently, a 70-foot-wide chunk of Hollywood Boulevard collapsed into a sinkhole on June 22, during construction of the subway tunnel near Vermont Avenue. Shortly thereafter, the MTA fired the major contractor digging that tunnel. The contractor, Shea-Kiewit-Kenny, currently is under a federal criminal investigation for its work on the project.

David Mieger, project manager for the San Fernando Valley East-West Transit Corridor, said he is worried that these recent problems will further stall construction of the segment routed to go through the Hollywood Hills, connecting Hollywood to Universal City. That stretch of the Red Line is scheduled for completion by the year 2000.

"We can't do anything to the valley until the Red Line is extended to North Hollywood," Mieger said. "Our main concern is - is that (Hollywood-to-Universal City connection) going to be completed on time? It wouldn't make sense to start construction on our (valley extension) project unless their project is finished."

Mieger said he is also worried about funding for the valley extension.

Gruen Associates has been hired by the MTA to prepare an environmental impact statement, which is required to qualify the project for federal assistance. The EIS is similar to the environmental impact report, which is required by California law. But the EIS is aimed at spelling out how the project would meet requirements of the national Environmental Protection Act.

"We can't even compete for money unless that documentation is completed," Mieger said. "The big question is, will there be money available?"

Studies in motion

Other consultants hired by the MTA completed an EIR in 1990 and a supplemental study in 1992 for a proposal to build an elevated rail line through the valley, along the Ventura (101) Freeway. But in October 1994, the MTA board decided to refocus its efforts on the Red Line route - northward on Lankershim Boulevard and then westward along Chandler Boulevard and Oxnard Street.

Last April, the board authorized the MTA staff to start work on the EIS, as well as on a major investment study, for the valley extension. The purposes of these studies, which are both being done by Gruen Associates for a combined $1.5 million, are to detail various transit alternatives (subway, elevated light rail, buses, etc.), consider various rail station locations, and calculate the cost effectiveness of each of the various options.

"The more we can reduce the cost, the sooner we can build the project," Mieger said.

MTA staff is hoping to have the reports completed by the end of 1996, which is when Congress is scheduled to consider reappropriations under the Intermodal Surface Transportation and Efficiency Act, a program to fund federal transportation projects around the country.

The MTA is hoping to get 50 percent of the valley extension's construction costs paid by the federal government, Mieger said. This would be in keeping with the long-standing policy of the federal government to provide matching funds for Metro Red Line construction, he pointed out.

But if federal funding was to dry up, financing the massive rail project would fall on the shoulders of local and state sources. And that would cause further complications, given the current economic conditions in California, he pointed out.

"The MTA gets 1 percent of the sales tax in L.A. County," Mieger said. "Those revenues have been down considerably because of the recession. It's hard to put a crystal ball up there and see what's going to happen. We have to get the study ready to go and see what's available at the time."

Brad Rosenheim, executive director of the Warner Center Association - which represents a group of major employers and property owners at Warner Center - said problems are to be expected on a project as large as Metro Rail. But he added that he is skeptical of the MTA and worried that delays will hurt Warner Center's future.

Alternatives explored

Because of that, the association is studying alternatives to rail, such as express bus service, shuttles and car-pool lanes on the Ventura (101) Freeway.

"We realize we won't see a rail line in Warner Center until at least 2020," Rosenheim said. "All our assumptions are based on what's happening today. Politically, that can change in a week or an election cycle."

The 1,100-acre Warner Center currently contains about 16 million square feet of commercial space and is home to major corporations such as Blue Cross of California, Litton Industries Inc. and Health Net.

"The future of Warner Center is contingent on transportation access," Rosenheim said. "Certain transportation infrastructure and/or services have to be in effect or demonstrated to have been funded in order to move from phase one to phase two."

Only a portion of the first phase of Warner Center has been built so far. It is designed to be built out in four phases, with a total of 35.5 million square feet of building space, by the year 2013.

The Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a business advocacy group, is an ardent supporter of the Red Line extension.

Marcia Mednick, co-chairman of VICA's transportation committee, said recent problems with the Hollywood sinkhole have been "played up in the press" and are "not that unusual."

"I think people are taking a much closer look at subway issues and wanting to know why this (sinkhole) has happened, but I think they just want more information," said Mednick. "When you're doing major construction, sometimes these things happen."