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ChineseThe Incredible Sinking Sidewalk
The LA Times reports this morning that portions of the Walk of Fame-bearing sidewalk around Hollywood/Highland are buckling, and what results is the predictable he said/she said is a finger-pointing mess between the folks in Hollywood and Metro Los Angeles.
[A]n underground aquifer beneath the Hollywood-Highland station was wet, and workers had difficulty getting the grout to stay in the voids, said Robert Nudelman, director of preservation issues for Hollywood Heritage and a longtime subway critic.
“The underground river is about 60 feet down. The tunnel is right above that,” Nudelman said. Water from the aquifer normally fills the voids. But during dry years the aquifer shrinks and the water in the voids seeps out. And that causes the tunnel, the earth above it and the sidewalk at ground level to slightly subside, he said.
“It’s the domino theory, and the Walk of Fame is the last domino,” Nudelman said.
Meanwhile, Metro responds:
“We didn’t find any excessive wetness at Hollywood and Highland. There’s no river in the area,” said Dennis Mori, executive officer of project management for the transportation agency. He was involved with the construction of the Red Line segment beneath Hollywood and Highland.
The Walk of Fame’s problems are due to sunlight, Mori said. “The black terrazzo is subject to expansion when hit by the sun. There’s thermo-expansion. There’s supposed to be expansion joints in there. They didn’t put in enough expansion joints” when the Walk of Fame segment was constructed.
The articles goes on to quote a wide variety of people with a wide variety of ideas. So to resolve the issue, they’ve split the repair cost amongst four parties and Metro brought in an expert from Miami to figure out once and for all just what’s going on. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
Image courtesy Flickr user ck22.
Discussion
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Thanks for the info. I frequent the Holywood/Highland area and am glad to know to watch out for uneven sidewalks.
Now if I could just avoid all those up and coming hip-hop artists…
I blame that guy who dresses up like Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th. He just looks evil and I know that machete he carries isn’t just a prop. He’s hackin’ away at the stars when nobody’s looking…
Nuthin like flying in an expert from miami to figure the problem out. Cuz there’s absolutely nobody in all of la or even california that has a clue. Jeez. Sounds like another scam. Whose genius idea wuz that and wut “leader” is getting a free vacay out of this?