Seismic Retrofit Plan for City Hall to Get 2nd Look : Construction: L.A. panel orders re-examination at urging of mayor and controller. Projected cost has soared from $92 million to $240 million.

By KENNETH REICH

Oct. 31, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The seismic retrofit of Los Angeles City Hall, suspended two months ago because cost estimates soared to $240 million, was thrown into deeper uncertainty Monday when the city Board of Public Works adopted the suggestions of the mayor and city controller and decided to take a fresh look at the project.

Mayor Richard Riordan and City Controller Rick Tuttle will suggest that experts be named, perhaps as early as this week, to a blue-ribbon panel that will re-examine the technical viability of the project’s basic concepts and all involved costs and safety factors, board President J. P. Ellman said.

In a letter released by Ellman, Riordan and Tuttle said they hope the re-examination can be completed in four to eight weeks.

But discussions before the board Monday indicated that months could pass before any decisions are made. City engineering aides said that it may be the end of the year before the Federal Emergency Management Agency commits itself to an aid package and that nothing can be finalized until financial resources are known.

Tuttle said safety factors demand an early decision.

“If we have a major quake, we have major problems,” he said. “That’s one reason this whole thing needs to be moved along. Our idea is to get this group assembled as soon as possible, with financially and administratively disinterested people, such as former seismic safety commissioners and state architects, who will take a good, hard look at things.”

No element of the project will be sacrosanct in the review. The planned installation of a seismic base isolation system, in what would be the tallest building in the world ever insulated from shaking by rubber springs in the foundation, will be among the items reconsidered.

Already, some seismic experts at Caltech and elsewhere have suggested that base isolation may be risky for the 26-story structure. Proposals for a less expensive isolation system would use sliding friction devices rather than springs.

Another issue is the cost of vacating the entire City Hall during the years of work on the retrofit, with the mayor, City Council and key agencies that have been allowed to remain in the bottom floors up to now moved to leased facilities. Already, municipal employees in the top 22 floors have been relocated.

Project manager Chris Martin said that leasing costs alone could run $50 million. A suggestion that officials could use the city-owned Los Angeles Convention Center was debunked by a city aide, who said Convention Center managers think that would jeopardize the purposes for which the center was built.

Riordan and Tuttle asked in the letter that the blue-ribbon panel examine, among others, these questions:

* “Are there other engineering solutions that might be more cost-effective for this project?”

* “Could significant savings be obtained if the engineering solutions proceeded from different assumptions or guidelines? If the engineers and architects were instructed to achieve better value while maintaining life safety, would they need different project criteria?”

* “Apart from the engineering strategies, are the project budgets credible? Is there material risk of budget overruns? If so, what is the real range of our financial uncertainty?” (The work was suspended after original estimates of $92 million grew to $154 million and then $240 million).

* “Is the proposed construction manager structure best suited for a project of this scope and complexity? If so, is the team now in place to undertake this project appropriate and adequate?”

After the meeting, City Council President John Ferraro said, “Experience has shown that the cost of seismic work has a way of escalating.” He expressed hope that the new panel “will enable us to rehab City Hall without too much disruption--and at a cost we can afford.”