Giving a boost to plans to extend the Red Line subway west to Santa Monica, the House of Representatives on Wednesday repealed a ban on tunneling through Los Angeles' Westside, two decades after subterranean methane caused an explosion in the city's Fairfax neighborhood.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who wrote the ban after the 1985 explosion, said he is satisfied that new technology now makes safe tunneling possible.
