To keep up with a looming project deadline, State Parks has received permission for weekend work on the Malibu Lagoon Restoration Project beginning Saturday, Feb. 2.
This is the second amendment to the project permit in a little more than a month. In late December, the California Coastal Commission extended the project deadline from Dec. 31 to March 15.
Six weekends remain between Feb. 2 and March 15.
The project’s original permit ruled out the possibility of weekend work and specified work had to be done “Monday through Friday.” But the California Coastal Commission amended the permit Friday “for good cause,” according to a letter to State Parks from the Coastal Commission staff.
Work on Saturdays and Sundays should consist of minimal noise at the site and no heavy equipment, according to Coastal staff.
“State Parks will take measures to minimize noise impacts to the public during the weekend work period. Therefore, no impacts to the public access from construction are expected to occur and the new construction schedule is not anticipated to result in new significant noise impacts,” staff wrote.
“The additional days gives us a buffer for rain events too,” said Craig Sap, Angeles district superintendent for State Parks. “Now it’s just manual labor. Workers are doing a lot of weeding and a lot of extensive refining work.”
The project to reshape the Malibu Lagoon got underway in June, despite legal challenges and protests from the City of Malibu and local opponents, who argued the planning was flawed and the project would do more harm than good.
Sap said he anticipates the project to remain on schedule and be completed by March 15.
“We’re hoping earlier, especially now that we’ve gotten some permissions to do weekend work,” he said.