Red Alert for the Red Line : U.S. halts funding amid construction problems

Is there a systemic problem within the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that is causing sloppy and poorly monitored construction on the Metro Rail subway? If so, that could jeopardize federal funding for Los Angeles’ huge mass transit project.

On Wednesday the Federal Transit Administration ordered a halt in federal funding for the Red Line until questions regarding construction and management of the multibillion-dollar subway--the biggest public works project in the country--are resolved. The federal agency also ordered a continued halt of tunneling in Hollywood, which already had been suspended because of surface sinkage and failure of braces.

NO DOUBT: These stunning developments should dispel any doubt about the need for a make-over of the MTA. That should include dissolving the Rail Construction Corp., the MTA subsidiary created specifically to build the subway in partnership with private-sector contractors.

“We perceive there to be inadequate management controls at the (MTA) for executing the (subway) project,” FTA Administrator Gordon J. Linton wrote in a letter informing the MTA of the freeze in federal funding.

Much of the culpability for the construction problems rests with the RCC. The subsidiary not only has it own board of political appointees who recommend changes and contract awards to the MTA (itself governed by a 13-member board of elected officials) but also has quality-control oversight and monitoring responsibilities. The RCC assumed authority over rail construction when the Southern California Rapid Transit District merged with the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission in 1990 to form the MTA.

The current structural relationship between the RCC and the MTA obscures accountability. Each time a problem has surfaced, RCC officials insist procedures were adequately followed. Yet new problems seem to emerge constantly. When The Times first reported trouble with tunnels in the subway’s Downtown leg, MTA Chief Executive Officer Franklin White ordered an outside review, which later verified some problems in construction and management.

NO END: The latest problem, involving tunneling in Hollywood, prompted White last week to order another outside review. Separately, on Tuesday--a day before the federal censure--MTA officials issued a scathing condemnation of their own based on MTA inspection records. They said the reports “strongly indicated” that the tunneling contractor had failed to place high-strength concrete or grout in joints of the outer shell along a mile and a half of tunnel beneath Hollywood Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. That failure is not going to bolster public confidence in the safety of those tunnels.

White has made a proposal to dissolve the RCC, a proposal that will be considered by the MTA board. MTA Board Chairman Ed Edelman must convene board members as soon as possible to discuss this and other actions necessary to restore credibility--and federal funding--to Metro Rail.