Shea Kiewit Kenny Company

Faulty and "unrealistic" design work by two of the main contractors on the Los Angeles subway project triggered the dramatic collapse of an 80-foot-wide chunk of Hollywood Boulevard four months ago, according to a troubling report released Thursday that rebuts past assertions from transit officials about who was to blame for the sinkhole.

Eager to avoid the uncertainties of further litigation and the embarrassment of a public trial, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board Thursday agreed to pay $3.5 million to the subway contractor it fired and accused of fraud after a huge sinkhole swallowed a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard.

The substitution of wood wedges for metal bracing in 12 miles of Los Angeles subway tunnels under construction was "inappropriate," according to an outside engineering study performed for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The study, obtained Wednesday night, also concluded that the wedges in tunnels along Hollywood Boulevard failed two months ago mainly because the contractor did not install them properly and did not surround them with concrete or grout material as required.

Federal prosecutors have dropped their criminal investigation of a subway contractor accused of using substandard materials in building the tunnels under Hollywood Boulevard. The U.S. attorney's office informed Shea-Kiewit-Kenny this week of its decision, nearly 2 1/2 years after the tunnel builder was fired by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its offices were raided by federal agents.

In a widening criminal investigation of the troubled Los Angeles subway project, federal agents Tuesday served search warrants on the contractor building the subway tunnel and hauled away boxes of documents relating to construction defects in the multibillion-dollar project. The warrants were served on the joint venture of Shea-Kiewit-Kenny, which was hired by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to dig the tunnels under Hollywood Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. Agents of the U.S.

A sweeping inspection of Metro Rail subway construction conditions found 131 alleged health and safety violations that together carry fines of more than $250,000, according to a final report Tuesday released by Cal/OSHA. In a joint weeklong audit by state and federal occupational safety agencies last month, inspectors reported inadequate shoring around trenches and numerous electrical hazards.

A proposed reorganization of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's management of Los Angeles subway construction calls for a handful of structural changes--but two key state legislators said Thursday that the plan falls short of what is needed. Prepared by MTA Chief Executive Officer Franklin E. White and aides, the plan calls for management and engineering changes aimed at preventing a repeat of problems that have plagued the multibillion-dollar project.

The Los Angeles subway project's largest tunneling job has been shut down because of the contractor's "serious safety violations" and a locomotive accident that hospitalized three workers, officials said Monday. The head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's rail construction staff said the tunneling operations, along Vermont Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, would remain halted until the contractor takes corrective actions.

Alarmed by two accidents within four months, state and federal occupational safety officials have begun an investigation of Metro Rail construction conditions--uncovering dozens of alleged safety violations and issuing a major citation in one of the accidents. A team of two dozen state and federal inspectors fanned out earlier this week across Red Line tunnels and stations under construction.

In one of the largest job safety fines in recent years, state and federal inspectors levied $447,125 in penalties Tuesday against the builder of Los Angeles' troubled subway for safety violations found after last summer's tunnel explosion injured three workers. A Cal/OSHA official also confirmed that the agency is conducting a criminal investigation into the explosion that rocked a tunnel beneath Vermont Avenue and 6th Street.

A construction safety engineer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has accused a former subway builder in federal court of overcharging the agency by at least $10 million in a fraud involving systematic contract "low-balling" and the use of substandard materials. In a lawsuit filed last year and unsealed by a judge last week, Gary L.

Despite a last-minute protest from the state's workplace protection agency, the Los Angeles city attorney has decided not to file criminal charges against a subway builder and one of its construction chiefs over the alleged endangerment of workers in a tunnel that collapsed under Hollywood Boulevard nearly a year ago. Assistant City Atty. Edmund E.

A safety engineer employed by a private contractor when a giant chunk of Hollywood Boulevard collapsed atop a subway tunnel last year was charged Thursday with forging his state engineering credentials. John Kenneth Martin, 52, was accused by the district attorney of falsifying Cal/OSHA licenses required to serve as a safety engineer in tunnel construction, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Five months after a giant chunk of Hollywood Boulevard collapsed atop a subway tunnel, state safety officials said Wednesday they are recommending that criminal charges be brought over the alleged endangerment of work crews at the scene of the disaster.

Faulty and "unrealistic" design work by two of the main contractors on the Los Angeles subway project triggered the dramatic collapse of an 80-foot-wide chunk of Hollywood Boulevard four months ago, according to a troubling report released Thursday that rebuts past assertions from transit officials about who was to blame for the sinkhole.

In an unprecedented maneuver that critics said could undermine the system for settling subway construction disputes, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has fired its own appointee to an independent review panel because he voted against the agency in a recent controversy over the troubled Hollywood leg of the subway, officials disclosed Wednesday. The appointee, Brooklyn engineer Eugene F.

In yet another blow to the county's beleaguered transit agency, a panel of independent experts concluded Monday that the firing of the firm digging the Hollywood subway "makes no sense at all" and will mean "horrendous" costs and delays.

Declaring that "enough is enough," transit officials Wednesday voted to go ahead and replace the firm building the Hollywood leg of the troubled subway project and divide the remaining tunnel work among other contractors. But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, citing the potential for a public backlash, rejected a staff recommendation to offer a piece of the work to two of the firms fired from the job.

Declaring that "enough is enough," transit officials Wednesday voted to go ahead and replace the firm building the Hollywood leg of the troubled subway project and divide the remaining tunnel work among other contractors. But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, citing the potential for a public backlash, rejected a staff recommendation to offer a piece of the work to two of the firms fired from the job.

In yet another blow to the county's beleaguered transit agency, a panel of independent experts concluded Monday that the firing of the firm digging the Hollywood subway "makes no sense at all" and will mean "horrendous" costs and delays.