Meetings and Red Tape Stall Metrolink’s Warning Plan : Safety: Approved in March, the $864,000 project to keep pedestrians away from the tracks is now expected to be completed in August.

A plan to install fences, warning signs, and a ditch to keep pedestrians off Metrolink tracks in Sylmar, San Fernando and Pacoima has been delayed about three months due to community meetings and bureaucratic requirements.

The $864,000 project--originally scheduled for completion this month--was approved in March by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in response to a rash of deadly rail accidents in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

Nine deaths have occurred on Metrolink tracks since the system went into operation in October--six of them along a nine-mile stretch of track between Sylmar and Pacoima on the line between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Clarita.

But because of bureaucratic delays in the selection of a contractor and several meetings with residents who live near the tracks, the project is not expected to be completed until August, said Mark Deirking, project manager for the MTA.

He said the project still awaits approval in July by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, the five-county panel that oversees the Metrolink system.

County Supervisor Ed Edelman, who represents the East Valley area where several of the accidents occurred, said Friday he was upset by the delays and promised to push transportation officials to get the project completed quickly.

Edelman, a transportation authority member who pressed to get the project approved, said transportation officials told him it was delayed because the firm originally selected to do the work was rejected because it was not a local company.

“I don’t find that argument persuasive at all,” he said. “Safety comes first. That fence should have been up months ago.”

The project calls for installing 60 “No Trespassing” signs, 16 gates and nearly 4,000 yards of wrought-iron fencing along a two-mile stretch of track between Vaughn Street in Pacoima and Astoria Street in Sylmar.

In addition, improvements would be made to a ditch between Brand Boulevard and Wolfskill Street that borders San Fernando Middle School in San Fernando.

Erosion of the ditch bank has undermined a fence separating the school and the tracks, creating openings below the wire that children can crawl through.

The project had originally called for 3,000 yards of 8-foot tall chain-link fencing and 1,000 yards of wrought iron fencing.

But after meeting with area residents, Deirking said transportation officials decided to use “about 95%” wrought iron fencing, which is sturdier than chain-link.

The fencing is a pilot project that, if successful, can be duplicated in other highly populated areas where pedestrians routinely cross railroad tracks to get to school or work.

* TRANSIT BUDGET: Red tape has delayed a plan to keep pedestrians off Metrolink tracks. B13