Every time it passes, Metro’s light rail line leaves more than just passengers in the Texas Medical Center.

It’s also leaking electricity into the ground.

The problem is stray current can corrode and weaken foundations.

“The thing is it’s relentless,” said Stephen Swinson, President of Thermal Energy Corporation. “It’s like shore erosion. It’s like every day. Every wave.”

Since Metro revealed its electrical problem 18 months ago, the Texas Medical Center is conducting its first comprehensive test to see if hospital foundations are now in trouble.

KHOU-TV

Metro rail

Swinson and the Thermal Energy Corporation are leading this investigation for a number of clients in the Medical Center. He says tests show above average levels of stray current in the area when Metro’s light rail is in operation.

Over the last couple weeks Swinson says engineers have tested almost a dozen medical buildings including foundations of the Texas Children’s Hospital, Methodist Hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Tower, and the University of Texas Health Science Center among others.

“Today there’s not danger of a building collapsing,” Swinson said, “But is there going to be future significant cost associated with having to reinforce structural members and things like that? It’s a possibility.”

Metro insists neither the public nor structures along the line are in danger.

“The amount that we’re talking about is so small,” Metro Spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said Friday, “that we’re talking about a 9-Volt battery being discharged from our rail line over the course of a day.”

If this is a little problem, Metro is spending big money trying to fix it. Its own records show Metro has spent more than $917,000 so far looking for the source of this problem all along its seven and a half mile line.

“It’s a contractual thing,” Roberts explained, “If you bought a car and it was under warranty and you thought there was something wrong you’d want to get it fixed. Well, we want to get it fixed.”

The Texas Medical Center does, too.

It’s waiting to get results back from the foundation tests to see how much stray current is impacting hospital foundations. That information isn’t expected back from researchers for a couple months.