Plans should be complete in two to three months. FEMA will most likely pay for the majority of the repair cost.
By Sara Rosner / Special to The Malibu Times
The city of Malibu is moving forward with plans to repair a segment of Corral Canyon Road that was damaged after winter storms saturated Malibu earlier this year. The Malibu Department of Public Works hired a consultant earlier this month to begin evaluating the damage and developing plans to repair the road.
Public Works Director Yugal K. Lall said the consultant, whom Lall declined to identify, should finish the plans for the road’s repair in two to three months and the city will then take bids for a contractor who will implement the plans. Lall said the road collapsed in March and that the city has been actively working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repair the damage.
“We’re trying to work as fast as we can,” he said. “But it’s a procedure.”
The public works director said that FEMA has already approved conceptual plans for the road and that he is waiting for a formal letter that indicates the federal agency’s financial obligation to the project. He said that FEMA would probably pay for 75 percent of the project’s estimated cost of $500,000 to $600,000. The state will pay 18.75 percent of the project and the city of Malibu will pay 6.25 percent.
The collapse occurred a mile and a half from where the canyon intersects with Pacific Coast Highway and is on the right side of the road going up the canyon. Corral Canyon resident Beverly Taki said approximately 100 feet of the right lane has collapsed into the canyon below and that this fallen segment has been blocked off with cement barricades and stop signs since June, leaving one lane open for residents to get in and out of the canyon.
The rains of last winter caused mudslides, closed roads and claimed the lives of dozens of people in Los Angeles County. According to the National Weather Service, Los Angeles had some of its wettest days on record with 16.34 inches of rain between Dec. 27 and Jan. 10 and 13.78 inches of rain between Feb. 17 and Feb. 23. FEMA declared the January and February storms as federal disasters 1577 and 1585. Lall said the Corral Canyon Road damage falls under federal disaster 1585 and repairs must be complete within 18 months after the disaster, no later than August 2006, in order to receive the federal funding.
In light of seasonal Santa Ana winds and a recent fire that destroyed more than 24,000 acres from Chatsworth to Topanga Canyon in six days, Taki expressed concern about emergency vehicle access and resident evacuation.
“My biggest concern is a fire,” said Taki, who is a co-founder of the Corral Canyon Safety Committee. “If we had a fire, it would become a one-way street.”
Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain David Leary of Station 71 said the 600 to 800 residents would be given advanced notice to evacuate and was confident that residents could leave safely in case of a fire. “It doesn’t pose an obstacle,” said Leary of the one-lane segment of road.
However, Leary also cautioned that factors such as humidity, wind direction and fire position could threaten the safety of residents in certain situations.
“It could pose a problem if we had a strong Santa Ana event,” said Leary, who recalled the 1996 Glendale fires that trapped a firefighter on Newell Road, off Corral Canyon. Although the firefighter survived, Leary said he suffered serious injuries.
Taki was also skeptical about the new road repairs because the current collapse occurred in the same spot as a collapse in 2001. When asked if the repairs of the 2001 collapse were inadequate or faulty, Lall said the landslides were just part of living in Malibu.
“The city of Malibu is prone to slides. There may be slides that we don’t even know about,” he said.