Hall Expansion Delay Is Linked to Poor Planning

A 2 1/2-year delay to complete a massive expansion at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar has been caused in part by poor planning and unrealistic deadlines, county officials said Tuesday.

Responding to questions from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Harry Stone, director of the county Department of Public Works, and Acting Chief Probation Officer Walt Kelly acknowledged that rushing the planning process for the 160-bed addition led to significant problems.

In addition to a yearlong interruption caused by the Northridge earthquake, Stone blamed the planning problems on the county’s attempt to secure state funding, which imposed strict construction deadlines.

“In looking back on the project, what went wrong was the tight deadlines from the state,” Stone told the board. “Certain pre-planning activities had to be abbreviated. . . . These have come back to bite us.”

Stone said the county and the contractor, Swinerton & Walberg, shared responsibility for delays on what will be the nation’s largest juvenile hall.

“There’s probably fault on both sides,” he said.

The hearing was called by Supervisor Mike Antonovich after a story in The Times found completion of the $26.2-million project has been delayed more than a half-dozen times since its first scheduled completion date in December 1994.

The Times found that months of delays and extra expenditures were the result of faulty planning, including numerous design changes requested by the county but not included in the original contract.

Also, months of extra delays and design changes costing hundreds of thousands of dollars were caused by an inaccurate planning map of the construction area given to Swinerton & Walberg officials by the county.

The county--which has been fining Swinerton & Walberg $5,000 a day in late fees since May 1--continues to dispute many of the reasons for the delays with the construction firm’s officials.

Swinerton & Walberg officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

During the hearing, Antonovich pressed the county officials responsible for the project about avoiding similar pitfalls on other projects.

“We need to find a way to keep this from happening in the future,” Antonovich said.

“Any new capital projects we have, we will make sure they have a good project design and a detailed review,” Stone responded. “[The design process] has worked on a number of projects. It didn’t work on this project, and we’ve learned a lot from it.”

Added Kelly: “To avoid this in the future means getting a clear definition of the project and staying on top of things.”

Swinerton has reported the expansion project would be finished by July 15. Stone said.