405
stuck in slow lane;
The
project will take a year longer than first planned
BYLINE:
Martha Groves
SECTION:
MAIN NEWS; Metro Desk; Part A; Pg. 1
LENGTH:
1148 words
Elon Musk quips that it's easier getting
rockets into orbit than navigating his commute between home in Bel-Air and his Space Exploration Technologies factory in
Hawthorne.
"The
405 ... varies from bad to horrendous," said Musk,
who also co-founded PayPal and Tesla Motors. "It just seems people in Los
Angeles are being tortured by this.... I don't know why they aren't marching in
the streets."
The
massive project to widen the 405 Freeway is not only causing traffic nightmares
for motorists like Musk but has also
been plagued by cost overruns and delays.
Transportation
officials say the project is now slated to take at least a year longer than
first anticipated and cost about $100 million more than the originally budgeted
$1 billion.
The
companies handling the work won kudos when they were able to reopen the freeway
ahead of schedule during the so-called Carmageddon
events in 2011 and 2012. But that masked a larger problem for the main
contractor, Kiewit, and the subcontractors.
Officials
now aim to complete the bulk of the project by June 2014, with work on the
problematic middle segment between Montana Avenue and Sunset Boulevard lasting
perhaps until next fall, according to Michael Barbour, the veteran engineer
overseeing the project for the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority. Kiewit has said "it could go as far as September," Barbour
said, "but we think we're ahead of that."
The
delays and cost overruns are raising the ire of both residents and local
officials, who say the project is causing major disruptions throughout the
already traffic-clogged Westside.
"This
project has been horribly managed," said Zev Yaroslavsky,
Los Angeles County supervisor and board member of Metro, which is running the
project. "The performance of contractors has left a lot to be desired....
They've shown a complete lack of sensitivity and empathy for the community in
which they're doing the work."
Asked
why he and other elected officials have not publicly prodded the contractor to
enlist more workers and equipment to speed the project, Yaroslavsky
said: "Where's the money going to come from? This project is over budget
by a considerable amount, and Metro hasn't figured out how it's going to cover
the cost overruns, let alone incur additional costs."
Several
factors have driven the delays, including the structural failure of miles of
new sound walls that had to be demolished and rebuilt, a legal wrangle over the
placement of ramps near the Getty Center and the complex logistics of finding
and relocating more than a dozen utility lines under Sepulveda Boulevard.
All
the while, Kiewit was instructed to keep traffic moving on one of the nation's
busiest highways.
Kiewit
released a statement Wednesday defending its work.
"The
costs and schedule impacts are the result of the project's overall complexity
and the significant challenges associated with multiple unexpected utility and
right-of-way issues," the firm said. "Kiewit and Metro are committed
to working together to minimize future delays and resolve final costs. We ...
are committed to delivering the highest-quality product on the I-405
project."
Metro
said some of the problems, such as the utility lines and legal issues over
where ramps should be placed, were out of the contractor's control.
The
405, which carries about 300,000 vehicles a day, is a vital north-south artery
known for epic jam-ups under the best of circumstances.
In
a bid to ease that notorious congestion, Metro and the California Department of
Transportation four years ago began preliminary work on the final 10-mile leg
of a carpool lane through the Sepulveda Pass. In addition to completing the
northbound HOV link between Orange County and the San Fernando Valley, the
project called for building new on- and off-ramps, demolishing and rebuilding
three bridges and adding miles of retaining and sound walls.
At
the time, officials forecast completion by spring 2013 -- right about now. The
timeline was later nudged to December 2013.
But
after last fall's Carmageddon II shutdown and
countless other smaller and seemingly unpredictable closures, earthmovers,
backhoes, K-rails and neon-vested workers are still much in evidence. Residents
and businesses have met the further delays with moans, groans and a measure of
resignation.
Nancy
Z. Freedman, chairwoman of the Brentwood Community Council, read three chapters
of "The Hare With Amber Eyes" while crawling
two-thirds of a mile along viscous Sunset Boulevard from Kenter
Avenue to Barrington Avenue. "The traffic did not move," she said.
Sol
Kahen, owner of Western Electric Supply near the
Santa Monica Boulevard entrance to the 405, said road blocks and surly work
crews have damaged his business.
He
has repeatedly called 405 project representatives to complain. "They don't
care," he said. "Sometimes they let my customers go through the
cones. Sometimes they were really mean."
Kahen,
68, who lives in Woodland Hills, stays at work until 8 p.m. many nights to
avoid the worst traffic through the Sepulveda Pass.
As
for Musk, he leaves his SpaceX office near LAX 90 minutes before his five sons hit
the sack at 8:30 p.m., but they're usually asleep by the time he has slogged
through the 405 construction zone and arrived home.
Fed
up, he decided to throw money at the problem.
Last
July, he met David Murphy, a Westwood resident, who heads Angelenos
Against Gridlock, a group seeking to hasten the
development and repair of infrastructure in California and nationwide. The two
shared traffic frustrations, and Musk
contributed $50,000 toward an effort to hurry the 405 project along.
So
far they have little to show for it.
In
an interview, Musk said he'd be open
to paying the costs of adding workers to the project "as a contribution to
the city and my own happiness. If it can actually make a difference, I would
gladly contribute funds and ideas. I've super had it."
Metro's
Barbour emphasized the positives. The 405 project is two-thirds complete, he
said. Wilshire Boulevard has new on- and off-ramps. A new, wider Sunset bridge
is open, and drivers now have two lanes instead of one to merge onto the
northbound 405 from the westbound 10 Freeway. The Skirball
Cultural Center has a new on-ramp, and miles of sound walls and retaining walls
have gone up. Metro will continue to open the project in phases so motorists
can benefit from improvements when they are ready, he said.
Still,
Yaroslavsky said he empathizes with affected
motorists and residents.
"I
totally understand the frustrations of people who live there and have to travel
through there and get up in the middle of the night when jackhammers are
going," he said. "It's just been a nightmare for everyone."
As
for who will bear fiscal responsibility for the cost overruns and delays, he
said, "this is going to be fought out between the contractors and Metro
for quite some time."
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