Once again, the City of Santa Monica’s long-delayed and on-going sewer repair project has created a daily commuter nightmare that has locals frustrated, angry and outraged.
“My fiance and I have had it. We’re ready to move,” snapped Sharon Sharpe.
The 15-year Malibu resident, who owns her own business based in Santa Monica, finds herself sitting on a small stretch of Pacific Coast Highway for hours along with thousands of Valley residents who cut over Topanga and Malibu canyons to avoid the 101 and 405 freeways. Her normal 20-minute trip to work now takes one to two hours.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s a parking lot backed up to Carbon (Canyon).”
The already high-volume of traffic through Malibu has been exacerbated by the massive repair project, which has portions of PCH down to two lanes.
The project began in 1999 when work crews started to replace two miles of old clay pipeline, which was damaged in the Northridge earthquake. Construction, which was suspended during the summer tourist months, resumed last week and will go through May 2002, if not longer.
The work is already one year behind schedule. “It was two years, but they ran into extra rocks and bad soil conditions so they decided to kick it over another year,” explains Malibu Public Works Director Chuck Bergson. “For some reason it seems to be worse this time.”
The problem has been frustrating for Bergson who has had numerous complaints from residents who are fuming and fed-up.
“We have 40 thousand cars a day coming over Malibu Canyon, but there are no buses. I’ve asked the MTA to address the problem, but they haven’t.”
Even without the project, out-of-town traffic has become a hot-button issue. “These communities keep building new homes,” says Bergson. “They live, work and sleep in Calabasas and they drive through our town. They get gas taxes and federal money to gold plate their streets while they beat ours up.”
The City of Santa Monica is advising commuters to use alternate routes (which are few) and vary their commute hours to avoid the morning and afternoon rush hours. But for people like Sharpe, that is impossible. “I own a business,” she said. “I have deadlines. I have to be here.”
There’s still no telling whether the project will meet its summer deadline. It hasn’t so far. For now, it seems there is no choice but to ride it out. Meanwhile, it might be a good time to grab some cassettes and learn a foreign language. You just might be fluent by the time its over.