Surprise! Caltrans Will Ban Parking At Popular Beach, As Twin Walls Go Up In Middle Of PCH.
Written by 991KBU on August 23, 2018
Caltrans is closing off all parking at Latigo Beach.
The state agency announced plans for a 24-7 parking ban late yesterday … after the state agency realized that its lane realignment for a construction project had made parking at the beach dangerously unsafe.
Motorists were shocked to find yesterday that … without notice to the city or the public … the state agency had shifted the traffic lanes over … onto the road’s shoulder.
About a mile … from Cher’s house at Puerco Canyon … down the hill past Malibu Seafood … to the campground entrance … is effected.
Early this morning … construction crews were installing concrete K-rail barriers in the center median … to push the two travel lanes towards the ocean on the south … and towards the hills on the north.
The original plan was to ban parking at night … when construction on a new center divider is underway.
But that left an incredible situation yesterday.
Beachgoers squeezed their cars onto a shoulder that in places was just barely wide enough for a car to park.
Car doors were opening out into traffic lanes.
People with beach chairs were walking in traffic .on both sides of the road…
At Malibu Seafood, zero room to walk along the side of the road, much less park.
After a reporter called the state agency … Caltrans put out a statement.
Not enough room to park … Caltrans concluded.
Parking would have to be quickly banned … 24 hours a day … Caltrans announced.
Last night … the concrete barriers went in after 10 o’clock .… and beach parking was eliminated.
As for closing off a beach in the summer …. a Caltrans official said the “timing for this temporary limitation on parking seems more favorable than it might have been earlier in the summer … now that the new school year has started.”
And a Caltrans official says closing the beach in the summertime is one of the … quoting now … “many difficult, challenging factors affect(ing) the timing of a construction project like this one.”
But the schedule for this may be more related to the election coming in November.
This comes as the state agency is rushing to get projects under construction before election day in November … when a proposal to repeal the state’s new gas tax is on the ballot.
Summer access to Latigo Beach may just be a casualty …. to a public relations effort to show Californians their gas tax money at work.
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Malibu city manager Reva Feldman says the city was caught by surprise by both the timing of the project … and with the state’s unilateral decision to effectively close Latigo Beach.
Feldman tells KBUU News that she is working the phones .. to try to find out why the state needs a 20-foot-wide construction zone in the middle of one mile of P C H in the middle of the heavy beach usage period.
The large construction zone also seemed surprising … Feldman said … because the state contractor is supposed to work only at night on this project.
Late last night … Feldman says the city is working to restoring the parking by narrowing the closed off area.
But at 10 o’clock last night … the concrete K-Rail arrived and was put into place … effectively ending the use of Latigo Beach for the summer.
