It’s taking time for the ban on road construction during rush hour to make its way through the L.A. bureaucracy.

Last week, Olympic Boulevard between Fairfax and La Brea avenues was tied up by two construction projects at the height of the morning rush hour. Three weeks earlier, crews were working on a project on Third Street just before 8 a.m.

So what happened to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s executive order issued in August prohibiting such rush-hour work?

Well, the order makes exemptions for “emergency maintenance and repair” and also calls for “careful consideration for major public works projects,” though what constitutes a major project is not clearly defined.

City Department of Public Works spokeswoman Cora Fossett said the department and the mayor’s office are still drawing up guidelines for what qualifies as a major public works project. Those guidelines are still weeks away.

Fossett also said it’s taking a while for all the city departments and private utility companies to comply with the ban. Some projects were approved before the ban. An even bigger problem is the lack of enforcement (similar bans in the past were ignored).

Villaraigosa directed the Board of Public Works to “identify and assign existing staff to enforce the ban.” But Fossett said that the department does not have adequate staff. “This is a big city over 400 square miles and we just don’t have the personnel to patrol all of it looking for violators of the ban,” she said.

Meantime, city officials determined that the Olympic Boulevard construction qualifies as a major project because it is part of a massive Department of Water & Power water pipeline replacement program that’s been going on for over a year.

“Stopping construction during rush hour would delay the completion date, further inconveniencing local residents and businesses, including a major hospital in the area,” said Darryl Ryan, a spokesman for Villaraigosa.