Work to repair roads damaged by landslides from storm rains will begin next month and require the closure of Las Flores Canyon Road from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for two months.
By Vive Decou / Special to The Malibu Times
Residents of the Las Flores Canyon area were informed Thursday at an open meeting that full closures of Las Flores Canyon Road would be necessary in order to make repairs.
Several sections of Las Flores Canyon Road have been reduced to one lane because of slides caused by heavy rainstorms earlier this year. Also, Hume Road completely collapsed after the storm rains saturated the landmass near Briarbluff Drive.
Dan Lehman, Los Angeles County engineer for the Road Maintenance Division, led other county officials in informing residents about the two phases of projects in the area that the Los Angeles Department of Public Works has planned.
The first project involves landslide mitigation work to allay the immediate danger of the Hume landslide. County geologists and engineers estimate that 30,000 cubic yards of soil will need to be removed from atop the Hume landslide. Lehman said this action is necessary because of the immediate risk further movement of the slide poses to both Las Flores Canyon Road and Las Flores Creek. After the material is removed, the hillside will be graded and drainage will be improved so the remaining slide area becomes less saturated in the coming rains. Also, a wall will be built protecting Las Flores Canyon Road from any remaining debris that could fall toward the roadway.
Michael Montgomery, supervising engineering geologist for the county of L.A., said that work was only beginning now due to safety concerns.
“The slide was moving up until two months ago,” he said. “We couldn’t begin until we were sure it was safe to put heavy machinery on a steep grade.”
Lehman said the LADPW estimates the landslide mitigation project will take two months and require a full closure of Las Flores Canyon Road from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week starting in early November, except on red flag fire warning days. Residents will be forced to take alternate routes such as Piuma Road to Malibu Canyon Road or use Tuna Canyon and Topanga Canyon Roads. Only emergency vehicles will be able to get through and if that happens the contractor working on the road would be contacted via cell phone and told to get equipment out of the way. Motorists attempting to use Gorge Road, which is south of Hume off Las Flores, as an alternate may be ticketed by waiting California Highway Patrol Officers.
Lehman said the second phase of projects planned by the LADPW is restoration of Las Flores Canyon Road. This involves building retaining walls at four points where the outer lanes failed during last winter’s storms. Three of these points lie between Hume Road and Gorge Road, which will be attended to first, and the fourth is above Hume Road. The projects between Hume and Gorge Roads will also require hard closures of Las Flores Canyon Road but on five days a week instead of seven. Done concurrently, the three walls will take three to five months to complete at the cost of more than $3 million. The fourth wall is expected to take five to six months to complete and cost $1.5 million. It will be done last as it already has a temporary retaining wall and will cause residents to have a smaller detour around the project. Work will begin on the retaining walls in early January after a holiday break that follows the completion of soil removal work on the Hume landslide.
Many newly informed residents were concerned about the road closures and worried about getting their children to school and other transportation issues, but officials insisted that the work needed to be done.
“We are doing everything we possibly can to make it better,” said Susan Nissman, senior field deputy for L.A. County Third District Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
Nissman, a resident of Topanga Canyon, is no stranger to adverse road conditions.
“We chose to live in an area that is vulnerable to these conditions,” she said. “Sometimes we have to bite the bullet.”
Lehman tried to reassure residents that there might be some leeway in terms of the timing of the hard closures.
“When we hire a contractor and he establishes a plan, then things could change, but for now, prepare for the worst.”
Resident Betty Smith was sympathetic with the county’s presentation of the roadwork plan.
“I really was impressed with the presentation, the expertise and openness to receive people’s concerns,” she said. “There is a very good dialogue. [Fixing the roads is] something that we have to do.”
Smith also added that she might be less frustrated than others because she is “self-employed, so I don’t have to go out every single day.”
Projects to restore Hume Road, both where it completely collapsed between Castlewood and Briarbluff drives, and in one area where the outer lane failed, are not yet scheduled pending further geotechnical studies, Lehman said. He explained that county geologists have not yet determined the proper fix for the road and need to do soil boring tests following soil removal on the slide. The best estimate the LADPW could give on when the project would be undertaken is next spring or summer.