To keep loose soil, debris and rocks from falling onto the roadway in Malibu and Ventura County, Caltrans has secured $2.5 million in emergency state funding to install fencing and railing along a 10-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway affected by the Springs Fire.
“The topsoil is loosened and there’s a lot of rock and dirt and sand coming into the roadway,” Caltrans spokesperson Lauren Wonder said. “We just need to protect the road from all that.”
Wonder said there was no current threat of a landslide and the barriers should be installed within the next week after a contractor got to work on the installations Saturday.
The money was quickly secured after a geologist surveyed the hillsides stretching from Mulholland Highway in Malibu to Las Posas Road in Ventura County, a stretch that had been periodically shut down Thursday and Friday because of the Springs Fire.
Wonder said fencing and railing would not be installed along the entire 10-mile stretch, but on specific areas where debris falls. She estimated 3 non-contiguous miles of fencing and K-rails would be installed.
“This is just kind of loose stuff, and hillsides are always moving,” she said. “The fire it created a situation where it loosens the soils, so it’s just coming down onto PCH.”
A state-contracted geologist is set to return for a second assessment after the installations are completed.
“He did a visual assessment but they’ll probably go back and check the actual slope and determine whether we need to do more permanent fixes,” Wonder said.
The Springs Fire scorched through the affected PCH area on Thursday but has since moved back into the Camarillo/Newbury Park areas. Approximately 28,000 acres have burned and the fire is 56 percent contained.