Considering that Richard “Dick” McLane “fell into engineering,” it seems appropriate that he ends up digging deeply into a project both literally and figuratively. That was especially the case with Section 1 of the D Line (formerly Purple Line) subway extension for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. As the tunnel construction manager for the joint venture of Skanska USA Civil, Traylor Brothers Inc. and J.F. Shea Construction, McLane conducted extensive research on the history and geology of the region.

That history includes a hiatus in tunneling in Los Angeles after a 1985 explosion at a department store due to the release of methane gas. “I needed to figure out what’s going on,” says McLane, chief mechanical engineer with Traylor Brothers.