MTA Cites Erosion, Not Subway, in Club Damage

NORTH HOLLYWOOD —  A preliminary investigation indicates that erosion by rainwater runoff caused the floor of a North Hollywood nightclub to collapse, not nearby subway tunneling, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday.

“We suspect some scouring action due to the storms that we had” may have been responsible for the damage to the El Sombrero Night Club, said John Adams, deputy MTA executive officer for construction.

Following an order from city safety officials, Isabel Lopez closed her club in the 4700 block of Lankershim Boulevard last week, blaming damage to the building on tunneling under the boulevard for the MTA’s Metro Rail project.

But MTA officials found a broken drainpipe near El Sombrero, Adams said. The water coming from that pipe and additional heavy drainage from the roof of the club and other buildings during recent rains may have gotten under El Sombrero’s concrete slab foundation, eroding the soil and causing the floor to sink, he said.

“We don’t know for sure what exactly caused the damage,” said MTA spokesman Rick Jager. But “we have looked at our operation and it’s our belief rainwater may have done some undermining.”

The transit authority is now reviewing records of the club’s prior condition to determine whether the building had weaknesses that contributed to the damage, Jager said.

But Lopez maintains the damage to her building was the result of the MTA’s activity.

“The water pipe busted because of their drilling,” she said.

Meanwhile, eight other businesses in the North Hollywood area have filed insurance claims against MTA for structural damage, including cracks in walls and floors, which they allege were caused by the digging, Jager said.

An additional 1,400 property owners from throughout Los Angeles are part of a group called Hollywood Damage Control Inc., which has filed a $2-billion class-action lawsuit against the MTA over property damage allegedly resulting from subway construction, Jager said.

The group did not accept the MTA’s findings as an acceptable explanation for El Sombrero’s collapse.

“That’s an interesting story,” said Jerry Schneiderman, chairman of the group. But, “how many storms have we had in the last 50 years? Why is it that the floors sunk after last week’s rains?”

The MTA is investigating all complaints and doing damage surveys, Jager said, to determine whether the city is at fault in any of the cases.

“We don’t know if these are preexisting conditions,” he said.

In the meantime, El Sombrero’s future is uncertain.

“Everything is at a dead stop,” Lopez said. “I don’t know how they expect me to survive.”

About three miles of subway are already in operation downtown between Union Station and McArthur Park. The tunneling along Lankershim Boulevard is part of an effort to extend the subway system from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley.

That stretch is scheduled to open in 2010, officials said.