Construction of a segment of Metro Rail’s Purple Line Extension has been halted for two weeks due to several “serious safety concerns” that have injured dozens of workers since July 2021, according to a report published Monday.
Workers have fallen off ladders, crushed fingers, slipped in mud, been struck by falling slurry and hit in the face by a failed hose while building a 2.6-mile segment of the extension that will extend the Purple Line from Western Avenue to the Westwood Veterans Affairs Hospital, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Metro officials said they have warned the project contractor, Tutor Perini O & G, about unsafe conditions at the underground site, but they were unchanged.
“There is an ongoing pattern of safety issues that have not been adequately addressed by TPOG and that has continued to persist unchecked,” Metro officials said in a letter sent to the contractor Friday.
The letter informed the contractor that construction of the extension could not resume until past failures were addressed and a plan to establish a culture of safety was devised.
Since July 2021, there have been 32 injuries inside and around the project, with 13 of the more serious injuries requiring medical attention and reporting to state workplace safety officials, who have been on site multiple times in the last six months to investigate injuries, according to The Times.
The shutdown comes as Metro is undertaking a building spree before the 2028 Olympics and embarks on a plan for longer rail lines. Over the next four decades, Metro plans on doubling the size of its rail lines with tracks that will connect cities at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, downtown Los Angeles, the beaches and San Fernando Valley.
In March, on a different leg of the Purple Line extension in Mid-Wilshire, a worker died after being struck by a service vehicle used to move equipment and people. That site was operated by joint contractor Skanska-Traylor-Shea.
