Westside Purple Line Extension Final Supplemental Environmental
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LOS ANGELES COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY WESTSIDE PURPLE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT, SECTION 2 ADVANCED PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING Contract No. PS-4350-2000 Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 – Revision 2 Prepared for: Prepared by: 777 South Figueroa Street, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90017 November 2017 THIS PAGE BLANK FOR DOUBLE SIDED PRINTING Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 – Revision 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents PREFACE............................................................................................................................................... P-1 1.0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1-1 2.0 PROJECT SETTING .................................................................................................................... 2-1 3.0 TUNNELING METHODS ............................................................................................................ 3-1 4.0 SOIL GAS CHARACTERISTICS .................................................................................................... 4-1 5.0 OCCURRENCE OF SOIL GASES .................................................................................................. 5-1 6.0 ASSESSMENT OF RISKS ............................................................................................................ 6-1 7.0 PROPOSED MONITORING AND MITIGATION MEASURES ........................................................ 7-1 8.0 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 8-1 9.0 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 9-1 WESTSIDE PURPLE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT November 2017 Page i Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 – Revision 2 Table of Contents List of Figures Figure 1-1: Surface Geology and Section 2 Tunnel Alignment ........................................................ 1-2 Figure 2-1: Recent Aerial Photograph of Beverly Hills High School Campus.................................... 2-3 Figure 2-2: Oil Field Limits ............................................................................................................. 2-4 Figure 2-3: Oil Wells at Beverly Hills High School and Vicinity ........................................................ 2-5 Figure 2-4: 1922 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells ............................................................ 2-6 Figure 2-5: 1926 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells ............................................................ 2-7 Figure 2-6: 1926 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells ............................................................ 2-8 Figure 2-7: 1929 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells ............................................................ 2-9 Figure 2-8: 1930 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells .......................................................... 2-10 Figure 2-9: 1937 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells .......................................................... 2-11 Figure 2-10: 1939 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells .......................................................... 2-12 Figure 2-11: 1947 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells .......................................................... 2-13 Figure 2-12: 1953 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells .......................................................... 2-14 Figure 2-13: 1954 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells .......................................................... 2-15 Figure 2-14: 1957 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells .......................................................... 2-16 Figure 2-15: 1960 Historic Aerial Photograph with Oil Wells .......................................................... 2-17 Figure 2-16: Geologic Cross-Section for Section 2 Tunnel Alignment ............................................. 2-19 Figure 2-17: Stratigraphic Cross Section along Proposed Tunnel Alignment beneath BHHS and Vicinity ...................................................................................................................... 2-20 Figure 3-1: Schematic of a Potential Type of Earth Pressure Balance Tunnel Boring Machine ........ 3-1 Figure 5-1: Methane Readings in Century City and on Beverly Hills High School Campus ............... 5-3 Figure 5-1a: Additional Methane Readings on Beverly Hills High School Campus ............................. 5-4 Figure 5-2: Methane Readings Along Section 2 Alignment East of Lasky Drive ............................... 5-5 Figure 5-3: Hydrogen Sulfide Readings on in Century City and on Beverly Hills High School Campus ....................................................................................................................... 5-6 Figure 5-3a: Additional Hydrogen Sulfide Readings on Beverly Hills High School Campus ................ 5-7 Figure 5-4: Hydrogen Sulfide Readings Along Section 2 Alignment East of Lasky Drive ................... 5-8 Figure 6-1: Saturated and Unsaturated Soils ................................................................................. 6-1 Figure 6-2: Photographs of faults encountered in trench explorations (a) at BHHS (Leighton Consulting, 2012), and (b) Newport-Inglewood Fault at Los Angeles Southwest College (Mactec, 2009) ................................................................................................ 6-3 List of Tables Table 2-1: Geologic Units within Depth Range of Tunnel and Station ......................................... 2-18 Table 2-2: Anticipated Ground Conditions in Reach 4 ................................................................. 2-18 Table 2-4: Summary of Oil Wells Closest to Reach 5 ................................................................... 2-22 Table 4-1: Hydrogen Sulfide Effects.............................................................................................. 4-2 WESTSIDE PURPLE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT Page ii November 2017 Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 – Revision 2 Preface PREFACE The Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 Memorandum was shared with the City of Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) in March 2017 as part of the Section 4(f) consultation process for the publicly used recreational facilities at Beverly Hills High School. The memo was revised to address comments and concerns received in letters from the City of Beverly Hills on April 4, 2017 and BHUSD on April 7, 2017. Following circulation of the Draft SEIS in June 2017, the memo was revised again to address comments received on the Draft SEIS. WESTSIDE PURPLE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT November 2017 Page P-1 Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 – Revision 2 Preface THIS PAGE BLANK FOR DOUBLE SIDED PRINTING WESTSIDE PURPLE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT Page 2 November 2017 Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 – Revision 2 1.0 - Introduction 1.0 INTRODUCTION This memorandum has been prepared for Section 2 of the proposed Westside Purple Line Extension project (WPLE) (formerly referred to as the Westside Subway Extension) as part of the Advanced Preliminary Engineering (Adv. PE) phase for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). Section 2 of the WPLE Project will extend from the western “End Structure” of the Wilshire/La Cienega Station (at the western end of Section 1) to the eastern “End Structure” of the Century City Constellation Station. Section 2 will include two new stations: the Wilshire/Rodeo Station and the Century City Constellation Station, and tunnels extending from Section 1 to the Century City Constellation Station. The project alignment, including Section 2, is shown in Figure 1-1. As part of geotechnical investigations performed for Section 2, Metro has performed subsurface gas investigations to evaluate the potential for methane and hydrogen sulfide gas to be present along the alignment. The Westside Subway Extension Geotechnical and Environmental Report (Metro 2011a) and the Geotechnical Data Reports for Section 2 (Metro 2016a, b, and c) contain the soil boring logs, gas monitoring well diagrams, and detailed geologic profiles from these studies along the WPLE. In addition, other entities have performed subsurface gas investigations to evaluate the potential for gases at Beverly Hills High School (BHHS). This memorandum provides a summary of the Metro investigations, BHHS campus investigations conducted by others, and an evaluation of the potential risks related to encountering subsurface gases along Section 2. WESTSIDE PURPLE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT November 2017 Page 1-1 Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 – Revision 2 1.0 - Introduction Figure 1-1: Surface Geology and Section 2 Tunnel Alignment WESTSIDE PURPLE LINE EXTENSION PROJECT Page 1-2 November 2017 Assessment of Tunneling and Station Excavation Risks Associated with Subsurface Gas Section 2 – Revision 2 2.0 - Project Setting 2.0 PROJECT SETTING Section 2 of the Project