In response to a motion by County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted today to investigate whether the contractor hired to build the $2-billion Crenshaw-LAX light rail line is in breach of its contract after safety violations injured workers and placed others at risk.
The safety violations came as Walsh-Shea Corridor Constructors began ramping up work on the 8.5-mile line that is expected to have a daily ridership of 13,000 to 16,000 upon completion in 2019.
Metro responded by issuing an unprecedented order to shut down construction over a four-day period in early April. Work was resumed after the immediate hazards had been corrected.
“It strikes me that if there is a cultural, fundamental or endemic problem here, we cannot ignore it,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said at the meeting. “We cannot run this sort of risk.”
The supervisor’s motion, which passed with unanimous support, called for:
- Auditing the Metro procurement process that awarded Walsh-Shea the Crenshaw/LAX contract,
- Checking if Walsh-Shea – instead of Metro – should assume the $400,000 cost of hiring additional safety inspectors;
- Directing Metro’s incoming CEO, Phillip Washington, to submit a corrective action plan in 30 days addressing safety issues; and
- Directing Metro lawyers to explore whether Walsh-Shea was in breach of its contract when it failed to ensure the well-being of workers at the construction site.
Two workers have sustained leg fractures during construction of the Crenshaw/LAX Line, Metro Executive Director of Risk and Safety Management Greg Kildare told the Metro board.
Metro safety inspectors also criticized Walsh-Shea over improper rigging on a crane, improper guardrails around an open excavation, and gasoline in an underground area where flammable liquids are banned. The incident that prompted the temporary suspension of all construction on the project from April 9-13 was a worker striking a utility line with a jackhammer, causing an electrical short.
