Work In Progress: After 4 Mishaps, Warning Signs Added To Twisty PCH Detour

Caltrans has added additional warning signs on Pacific Coast Highway at the Trancas Creek bridge detours… after at least four crashes or mishaps. 

The state has been faced with complaints from the city of Malibu …. Not to mention mention motorists … that the quick zig zag detours installed at the bridge construction site were not marked.

The first day that the detour was in operation … there were no signs whatsoever … and it took only a few hours fro the first crash to happen.

As predicted.

Since then … there have been at least three incidents where cars have hit the concrete K-railing  …. Most of them on the second curve heading west … also as predicted.

Caltrans has put up a series off small arrows to better mark the tight curves.

What a concept.

Construction at the site has essentially ground to a halt for the winter rainy season. 

That means the detour was set up essentially for nothing … not really needed until work to tear down the second half of the bridge starts in April.

The bridge is now two years behind schedule … plagued by a series of engineering mistakes.

The worst error was failing to drill test bores in the creek bed … resulting in the first attempt to install deep piers into the mud failing.

One encouraging sign.

The lagoon at Trancas is deeper and full of seaweed from last week’s high surf.

State biologists have hopes of digging out a coastal lagoon at the inland side of Trancas … a fish habitat.

That project relies on the wider bridge … which may be finished this summer. 

Maybe. 

Deputies Nail 52 Drivers For Speeding In One Weekday, As City Pays For State Cops On Highway 1

Another crackdown on PCH last week.

And a permanent crackdown starts today.

On Wednesday of last week … extra county sheriff’s deputies nailed 52 drivers for speeding … most of them in the Civic Center area. 

Many Malibu drivers make fun of the deputies for waiting for speeders at the bottom of the hill … where the speed limit drops from 50 to 45. 

Deputies have pointed out that the area gets a lot of crashes … and it’s one of the few places where the highway is extra wide … making it more safe for the deputies. 

In addition to the 52 speeding tickets … nine other tickets were written for red light violations … drivers using a cellphone … or other violations.

The city of Malibu does not have its own police force … like 44 other small cities in L-A County … Malibu hires the LA County sheriff’s office to act as police. 

And the local sheriff’s office is thanking the City of Malibu for augmenting the local police force with three CHP four CHP officers … most days … starting today.

It’s a collaborated effort to enhance traffic safety in Malibu.

For about 40 hours a week … shifts of three Highway Patrol officers plus one sergeant will be on the road.

The city is paying for this … although some are grumbling about that.

Council member Marianne Riggins … last month.

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“Given the amount of money that the state and the county takes for our property taxes, in addition to the amount of people that use our local areas that are not local residents here … it would be nice to explore ways for us to get some sort of reimbursement or some sort off change in the tax allocation that we get from our property taxes.”

And Bruce Silverstein.

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“I think that’s absurd that we are being forced pay to get the police protection here that we should be entitled to.

“And we not only have to pay to get them here but we also have to indemnify  them for whatever they may do that’s wrong.

“I think that ’s crazy.”

The timing of the CHP patrolling will vary … and it will be done in consultation and coordination with the extra and regular sheriff’s deputies sent to Malibu’s Main Street.

Some residents are griping on social media that going after motorists for exceeding the speed limit by 10 miles per hour is not addressing the root problem …of some drivers exhibiting excessive speed. … like 90. 

Study after study has proven that aggressive enforcement of speed limits lowers the temperature on a given roadway … 

And most of the tickets written on PCH are for speeds in excess of 10 miles an hour above the speed limit.

 

City Council Wanted To Wait To See What Caltrans Would Come Up With For PCH, And Caltrans Came Up With Not Much

Pacific Coast Highway is agenda item number one in Malibu in 2023 … and will be at the center in 2024.

The city’s Public Safety commission has it on their agenda for tomorrow night … and the city council has PCH on the agenda for next week.

Several city council members are on the record of favoring immediate steps to reduce highway speeds on PCH … at least slow down traffic speeds.

Two city council members … Bruce Silverstein and Steve Uhring … have said the city should take unilateral steps … like barricades on the roadway to narrow lanes … right now.

Silverstein was ready for the city to take things into our own hands right now.

Bruce Silverstein … in late November.

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“As I see it, each of the following traffic calming measures has potential to slow traffic on PCH without regard to enforcement and I am hoping we could at least have a discussion of them at an agendized meeting so that maybe we can implement some of them.

“Electronic signs warning of various matters such as ‘danger ahead proceeded with caution’; ‘safety corridor, reduce speeds’; we could even have – even though if it’s not true – ‘fines tripled for speeding.’

. We have signs that say it ‘slow down speed check with the radar’. 

“We could have flashing yellow lights.

“It doesn’t matter if they are not enforced …  at least have the effect of slowing people down.”

Other council members wanted to see what Caltrans officials have come up with. 

The state is apparently lagging behind city desires.

On November 14th … Caltrans officials promised immediate action.

Safety officer Lee Haber.

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“We are going to be utilizing the data and examining the current laws and regulations for speed limit signing, to see what we can do and what efforts we need to undertake to address the speed limit appropriately in this area.

“Our goal is to reduce the speed limit in this area. 

“But We do have to work within this process within the 85% percentile.”

That was in November.

Three weeks later … the Caltrans official creamer back to the Malibu and said the existing traffic speeds are too fast to lower the speed limit.

That’s the average speed … being driven by Malibu drivers and commuters alike.

That means the drivers thinking that the speed limit does not apply to them … those who go 5 or 10 miles an hour over the speed limit … are telling motorists around them that 55 is fine on a residential street …. or business district. 

55. 

Caltrans also promised an immediate traffic safety audit … for all of PCH …. quickly in the aftermath of the four-fatal crash last October.

Despite sunny press releases and gleaming new websites … that promise has fallen by the wayside.

Caltrans organized its Road Safety Audit on November 28th.

But they only surveyed two and a half miles of the road … from Las Flores Canyon Road to the Malibu Pier.

2 and a half miles down … 33 miles to go.   It’s 33 miles from the Santa Monica Tunnel to Neptune’s Net. 

That’s 8 percent.  At this rate … PCH will be surveyed in 13 years.

And as for the 130 safety recommendations … recommended by a Caltrans consultant 8 years ago … remain half unfinished.

Of the 130 safety recommendations … made in a Caltrans/Metro/City of Malibu study 8 years ago … 59 projects have yet to start planning.

19 of them have been completed by the city’s count.   That’s a completion rate of 15 percent … and frankly … those were the easy ones … the low hanging fruit. 

And the new Caltrans promises … for an end to business as usual … made just two months ago??

Those promises have already have been broken.

 

Pepperdine Public Safety Apologizes For Email Identifying Student Banned From Dorm

Police officers at Pepperdine University are apologizing after someone on the force mistakenly sent an embarrassing email to the entire campus community.

The email contained the name and student ID number ,… and said that person was restricted from entering the dorm where there student had lived.

The student was being put up in a different housing unit on campus.

The director of resident life sent the email to the Pepperdine Public Safety Department.

Someone there forwarded it to the entire University.

Nine minutes later .. Pepperdine asked people to disregard the email.

Three hours later … another email.

“We regret the mistake snd sincerely apologize for the error”

The entire episode was reported in the Pepperdine Graphic newspaper.

Local school are on winter break this week.

Malibu’s two elementary schools go back in session next Monday.

The middle school and high school of back into session next Tuesday,

For drivers heading to work in LA…

School in the Los Angeles Unified School District is still out … and will be until next Monday.

UCLA goes back into session today. 

That means PCH will have slightly heavier traffic this week …

But back to the weekday traffic James next Monday.

 

Cold Rain Possible Tonight, Then High Surf Thursday

A cold storm will bring periods of light to moderate rain tomorrow night … but move through quickly Thursday morning.

It’s going to be cold … snow on the Grapevine and in the mountains above Pasadena Wednesday morning.

Rain will blow out of the area during the day Thursday … but lots of cold dry air behind the rainfall.

How cold?

Lows of 49 on the beach Thursday.  37 in the hills above Malibu.  Some canyons may go well below 30.

On Saturday …. another storm will bring some rain and mountain snow along with more cool temperatures to the region over the weekend.

Last week’s monster waves have backed off … but more big storms on the El Nino track may again send big ones our way. 

The forecast for today is a moderate west swell …. increasing to sizable swell by Thursday. 

The National Weather Service warns of breakers from 5 to 8 feet… With possible local sets to 10 feet… Starting Wednesday evening and lasting into Thursday evening.

Much bigger waves are possible by Sunday.