BEVERLY HILLS
Page 16 | June 24, 2011
TUNNEL (Continued from page 1)
structed in 1928 before adoption of the Field Act, but has been retrofitted a number of times since to comply with safety standards. The Act is definitive. No matter how safe a building may be, that building cannot be used for a public school unless its construction complies with state standards. One of those standards is that no public school building may be higher than four stories. That makes ground area the determining factor in what can be built on a school campus. Unlike office buildings, a school cannot just “go up and up” to accommodate more students. This means if something were to happen to Beverly Hills High School and students could no longer attend school there, they could not be moved to an office building. The DSA may grant “temporary certification” to ensure a
a vast swath of land from Long Beach inland to Los Angeles. The Newport/Inglewood Fault is considered by geologists to start near the Beverly High campus. The magnitude 6.4 1933 earthquake lasted five seconds, killed more than 115 people and caused property losses estimated at more than $50 million in 1933 dollars. It leveled building after building in Compton, Long Beach and Huntington Park. The damage to Alexander Hamilton Junior High School on State Street and Alameda in Long Beach after the 1933 earthquake. Photo: Courtesy of W.L. Huber. via Among the hardest hit were U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library public schools. Compton alone lost its high school, five California for building or re- no building can be built or re- surface. junior high schools and 14 eleFor all practical purposes, modeling a school above a modeled on top of the tunnel’s mentary schools. John Muir “zone of influence.” In the case Metro gains an easement from subway tunnel. High School in Long Beach The Courier asked DSA of Beverly High, that zone is the bottom of the tunnel to the was reduced to rubble. Towers Public Relations Officer more than 140-feet wide across surface, subject only to pre-exakin to that of our neighboring Gretchen Zeagler whether any the entire campus. Based on isting buildings. No new conAlexander Hamilton High public school buildings have the route diagrams provided by struction can take place inside School and classrooms literally ever been constructed over a Metro to date, the tunnel “zone the easement immediately dissolved. subway tunnel. She said there of influence” will cut a path bracketing the tunnel. Everyone realized are tun- right through the campus from The existing Beverly High that if the quake had nels in Spalding to Century Park East. foundations already intrude happened a few e x i s The 1928 Beverly High into that area. The legal hierarhours earlier during t e n c e buildings cannot be improved chy provides that buildings that school hours, tens of n e a r without running afoul of the already exist take precedence thousands of children s ch o o l s Metro easements because over the tunnel, so the existing would have been but none Metro considers extensive “re- Beverly High buildings can rekilled or injured. Ast h a t modeling” to be new construc- main. semblyman Charles h a v e tion. However, remodeling is Field, a building conbeen an Since the Field Act pro- prohibited because that makes tractor, authored the issue for hibits construction above four it “new construction” in viola1933 Field Act with the DSA stories, the high school cannot tion of the Metro “prior in the Long Beach earthd u r i n g rely on more stories to house its right” easement. quake in mind to asc o n - students. When the school’s Even if a building could be sure safe public s t r u c - buildings reach the end of their built or remodeled above the schools and enact dit i o n . respective useful lives (build- tunnel’s “actual zone of influrect state review of B e ve r l y ings do wear out), for some in ence,” it must have a foundapublic school deH i l l s ’ about 15 years, they cannot be tion deeper than the zone itself. signs. The John Muir School damage after the Long Beach 1933 earthquake. Measure replaced on their current site. MTA’s draft Environmental ImThe Field Act Photo: Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library E bond Given the small size of the pact Report states the tunnel worked. According to w a s BHHS campus, there will be no under Beverly High will range temporary building is safe for California Department of Gen- students and staff, valid for 24 passed to update and remodel place to put replacement build- from a floor (bottom of the tuneral Services Web site, in the months. However, the “tempo- the district’s campuses. Those ings. nel, not top) approximately 63 more than 75 years since it was rary building” can only be a actions require DSA approval, The figure (bottom left) to 78 feet deep. enacted no public school pupil one-story, re-locatable building but would be difficult if not im- shows the different areas above This does not allow any or teacher has been injured or no greater than 2,160-feet in possible to meet in the event of and below the tunnels where room for building anything bekilled because of the failure of area. That explains why so a subway tunnel under Beverly nothing can be built. low ground. Any new construca building approved by the many public schools have the High. The average height for a tion would have to be done on DSA from exposure to any trailer-like “temporaries” that The consequences to the subway tunnel is approximate- top of a concrete and steel earthquake, snow, wind or oth- never seem to go away. Beverly High campus are se- ly 25 feet and the average bridge over the tunnels stretcher loads. Remodeling, retrofitting or vere because of the interplay height from the top of the sub- ing nearly 200-feet wide. The The Field Act applies to replacing Beverly High’s build- between the Field Act (which way tunnel to the top of the foundations must straddle the public elementary, middle, ings would be blocked if the sets school building standards) permanent easement area tunnel zone and extend to behigh school and junior college Metro tunnel is built under- and the MTA tunnel easement where structural encroachment low the tunnels. The resulting buildings constructed after neath. There is no precedent in requirements. is prohibited is approximately cost would be prohibitive in 1933. Beverly High was conOnce the tunnel is built, 25/30 feet. the view of Beverly Hills UniThe floor of the tunnels is fied School District’s engineers projected at between 63 and and other experts. 78 feet below ground. That Next Week: Part 3 - A means that there would be less deeper look at geography and than eight feet between the top geology. of the Metro easement and the
Typical Metro Permanent underground easement requirements. Figure does not include vibration induced noise or structural settlement avoidance setback requirements. Graphic courtesy of PrimeSource Consulting
Compton Union High School in Compton, California after the Long Beach Earthquake in 1993. Photo: Courtesy of W.W. Bradley via U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library.