Fourth in a series
Re “The Most Insulting Statement Any Individual Could Have Made’ – Motyl”
A number of noise complaints about the 2½-month-old Expo light rail have been filed with City Hall – which does not run the train – for two reasons:
• This is where neighbors have carried their gripes for years.
• The sprawling downtown Los Angeles behemoths operating the train – the Metro Board and Expo – are out-of-towners, faceless, mystical and intimidating.
Public Works Director Charles Herbertson and his staff have been accommodating. But since they are not the primary actors, not much has changed.
“We have no authority to go onto their right-of-way and start working on stuff,” Mr. Herbertson said this morning. “We would never do that. We can’t do that.
No. 1 Mission
“Our role is to try and influence (Metro) to do it. But we can’t do it ourselves. There is nothing we can do. Outside of the right-of-way, theoretically we can do stuff.
“Most of the correction work can be done within the right-of-way.”
In the Interim
Public Works is not hand-sitting, though.
It is not known what proportion of residential complaints about noise emanating from the 21-hours-a-day train have been aimed at City Hall and what percentage elsewhere.
“What we are trying to do now,” said Mr. Herbertson, “is assess the problem. The city has authorized the hiring of a noise and vibration consultant, which we have on board now.
“The first task the consultant has is to meet and coordinate with corresponding consultants for Metro and Expo. All three have their own consultants,” and it is not clear when or if they will agree on solutions.
“We are trying to get them to coordinate on the (noise) study going forward,” Mr. Herbertson said.
“There already has been a draft study by Expo that we are calling into question. This is why we have our own consultant now, to verify their results.”
Getting Started Slowly
The competing consultants are expected to meet later this month to coordinate such matters as where are they going to take the sound measurements? And they will talk about what they will be looking for.
“Once that is done,” Mr. Herbertson said, “they will be going out to the site to take measurements – again.”
Meanwhile, it is presumed there will be a measure of rivalry because the consultants represent competing government agencies.
“Ultimately, it will be Metro’s responsibility to operate the Expo line,” said Mr. Herbertson. “The Expo line (from downtown Los Angeles to a terminus nine miles west to Culver City) was built by the Expo Construction Authority. At some point, the full responsibility gets turned over to Metro. That hasn’t happened yet, even though Metro is operating the line.
“There still issues that need to be resolved, such as this one with noise, that need to be resolved before that full turnover occurs.
“That is why Metro has their own consultant. I don’t think they are interested in just inheriting a problem from Expo Construction Authority.
“The public tends to see Expo and Metro as one entity, they are not. They have two separate boards even though there is overlap in board membership.
“Metro’s position is, ‘If there is a problem, we want to know about it and get it fixed before we take responsibility for the line. We don’t just want to have it laid in our laps.’
“In that regard,” the Public Works chief said, “they are kind of on our side. That puts us in an interesting position.”
(To be continued)
