PCH was closed for an hour early this morning.
A new traffic light switched on today … on PCH.
And Malibu High traffic patterns are about to change … watch out Guernsey.
This is Malibu’s only local daily news.
It’s the Wednesday edition of the news … from Radio Malibu …. 97 point 5 K B U.
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Good morning Broad Beach.
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PCH had some major delays this morning.
A truck hit a power pole … and brought down live wires … at 5:45.
It happened in front of the old courthouse … west of the Rambla Pacifico signal and wets of the La Costa Beach stores.
Both directions closed for an hour … traffic began flowing again at 7.
Right now ((( at 8 o’clock )))) the right lane is blocked heading west to Malibu.
Traffic is backed up all the way to Topanga Beach.
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Peak overnight Santa Anas in Malibu hit 55 miles an hour at around midnight.
The strongest winds were measured up at Camp 8 … the county fire station in Upper Las Flores Canyon.
Wind gusts ere about 31 miles an hour in the hills above Zuma Beach.
Winds will slack off today …. complete weathercast coming.
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Traffic joy … coming … not a good thing.
A new traffic light on PCH in Pacific Palisades .… will be switched on today.
More on that in a minute …
But first … Santa Monica school administrators say major changes are coming to Morning View Drive at the high school.
The front parking lot at the school will be closed to all drop-off … waiting … and pick-up traffic.
When school resumes after spring break … all the parents who have been dropping off … or waiting … or picking up their kids … will have to use the curb parking lane on Morning View in front of the school.
But that lane has only about 20 percent of the vehicle capacity for waiting cars … the two parking lots that are being closed hold the lion’s share of waiting cars.
This guarantees a complete standstill to traffic on Morning View afternoons.
Parents will have just 20 percent of the existing spots to unload … wait.. and load their kids.
Aggravating the situation …the school district is closing the front faculty teachers lot.
There are 84 parking places in the front lot … but the school district has not built any new parking lots yet.
Negotiations are ongoing to let the teachers park at the church across the street … but there are only 40 spaces there and the church uses some of those.
The one-time overflow parking area … up near the gym … is now filled with temporary classrooms.
Demolition of the front of the school is starting before construction of the new parking lot above the football stadium has even been started.
Years ago … residents were promised that new parking lot would be finished … before the front lots were closed.
And on top of all this … there is no new traffic plan to handle vehicles leaving the pickup or drop off zone in the front of the school.
For 50 years … they have been able to get back to P CH at the signal at Morning View.
Now … they will have no place to make a U-turn … no alternative but to use Guernsey Avenue to return to P C H.
That’s a stop sign .. of course … and it is already heavily backed up with school traffic.
Guernsey is narrow … winding … and the exit onto PCH is much more hazardous than at the signal on Morning View.
Residents of the Malibu Park area were promised by school officials that P C H at Morning View Drive would remain the primary access route to the school during construction …. not Guernsey.
Residents were also promised that no parking would disappear until the new lot was opened.
A spokeswoman for the district says that construction phasing has changed.
The P C B lawsuit means that district officials are up against deadlines … and the construction schedule has to be compressed.
The barricades go up next week.
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And now … Caltrans.
The state agency tells KBUU news that … at some point today … it will turn on a new traffic signal on Pacific Coast Highway … near Temescal Canyon Road,
This new signal … is a set of flashing red signals of the type that westside motorists have never seen before.
When the pedestrian wants to cross … they push a button.
The lights turn yellow … then red.
Then after a few seconds … the red lights start blinking … alternating.
That indicates cars can … after coming to a complete stop … and check for pedestrians … drivers can proceed.
Caltrans officials can -not- tell K B U U News if the new pedestrian red light can be expected to increase rear-ender collisions … in the confusion … which seems to be a fairly predictable and foreseeable result.
We also do not know if the new signals are tied in to the nearby signals at Temescal and Bel Air … or if they will just randomly turn red.
But then … none of the signals on Pacific Coast Highway are timed or synchronized with each other … so why would these be any different.
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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu … 97.5 K B U. ((( time ))))
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This is tsunami awareness week …. and for the next few days KBU News will be shining the light on particular dangers for Malibu.
Imagine the Santa Monica bay shaking violently … with water moving back and forth.
The danger for us locally is that there would be no advance warning.
Tsunamis from distant earthquakes take hours to get here.
A seiche wave would arrive minutes after a large quake.
And that type of a quake would not give scientists time to send any warning at all .. to Malibu or anywhere else along the santa Monica Bay coast.
Here’s Eric Boldt at the National Weather Service.
SEICHE BBBB : 50 QQQQ: LOUD ROARING SOUND.
Eric Boldt at the National Weather Service.
It’s not an abstract threat…. tsunami awareness long the California coast should be a constant state of awareness.
Think about where you will go … to seek higher ground … when driving up and down the Malibu coast.
It’s tsunami awareness week …. at 97.5 KBU.
This morning … KBUU Radio will carry the statewide Emergency Alert System test at 10:15. National Weather Service technicians at Oxnard will activate the EAS tones here on KBU Radio.
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Traffic …
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Weather for the Malibu ….
It will be (((( windy … high 73 )))) degrees today on the beach … (((( 75 )))) inland.
Winds will be strong and off and on … winds about 10 to 20 and gusts up to 35 miles an hour coming over the mountains. )))
Sunset tonight is at (((( 7:11 )))).
After that … expect it to be ((( windy still )))) tonight … a low of (((( 56 )))) on the beach … down to (((( 49 )))) in the canyons.
Tomorrow should be (((( much the same )))).
Right now … it’s (((( 59 )))) at Trancas.
(((( 67 )))) in upper Malibu Canyon.
And it’s (((( 56 ))) at Civic center Los Angeles.
In the ocean … it’s (((( 57 )))) degrees in the water at Zuma Beach.
The lifeguards say the waves today are (((( 4 to 6 )))) feet high ….
(((( WNW/NW swell-mix tops out – focal points may go larger. Small SSW swell ))))
Those are (((( fair )))) surfing conditions …. according to the lifeguards.
((((( Theres a high tide at 11:11 AM … 4 and 3 quarters feet high.
Low tide is at 5:06 PM.
Another high at 11:19 PM … this one 5 and a half feet high. ))))
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Our KBU Newswire is posted at midmorning at the Malibu Times dot com.
Remember… you can always get breaking news ….follow us on Twitter @975KBU.
We post breaking stories … on Facebook … search for Radio Malibu.
And we always cover breaking news … on the radio … at 97-5 FM in western Malibu.
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Navigate to k-b-u dot f-m. … press two buttons …. and we’re in your ear anywhere in the world.