One northbound lane of PCH was closed in mid-February by Caltrans.
Caltrans in a May 7 statement said the right-bound lane was closed for safety because of a slide that occurred in mid-February and worsened by a second series of storms in March.
The slide area referred to as the “Tramonto Slide” has been an issue for many years, and in the past, crews have been able to clear the slide debris on the highway to reopen lanes.
Caltrans public information officer Marc Bischoff wrote, “This most recent [Tramonto] slide originated outside of state/Caltrans right of way, although it continues to encroach onto Caltrans right of way.
“A joint study was done in 2010 by Caltrans and the City of Los Angeles, one of the property owners,” Bischoff said. “The study documented the history of the slide and recommended that long-term repairs start from the top of the slide.”
He said that Caltrans has waited for weeks for this most recent slide to dry out, but unlike the past, when the dirt from the slide was removed, the “Geotechnical Division has determined the unstable nature of the slide prevents Caltrans from removing the debris from the right lane of the highway near the toe of the slide and that repairs still need to start from the top of the slide, which is outside of our jurisdiction and right of way.”
Caltrans has determined that most of the property near the top of the slide is privately owned and some of it is owned by the city of Los Angeles.
A permanent resolution to the Tramonto slide area will need to be determined with the owners of the property outside of Caltrans’ right of way, according to Bishoff. Long-term mitigation may require construction of infrastucture on private property and there is no estimate of when a plan will be established.
Bishoff said that once the slope has been stabilized from the top, Caltrans can continue with repairs at the bottom of the slide.
In the meantime, an emergency Caltrans Director’s Order has been requested to fund the creation of a second northbound lane on PCH.
Bishoff said “There is no additional space in the median to create another lane. Both northbound and southbound lanes will be shifted towards the beach to the shoulder of the current southbound lanes.”
A plan to reconfigure the lanes is under design and once approved, will involve grinding, paving, restriping and removing lane delineators in the median that are secured with concrete and bolts. The project is expected to take two weeks to complete, but there is no estimated start date.
He said there is a second slide south of the Tramonto location that is also undermining the northbound right lane. “Those additional repairs will be included in the Director’s Order.
“Caltrans recognizes the severely negative impact to traffic flow and commuters and is expediting the preparation process,” Bishoff said.
Watch for updates on the status of this closure and others on state highways on the social media page at “X” (formerly Twitter) at https://twitter.com/CaltransDist7 . Motorists can view real-time highway closures at https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/ .
The slide in the beginning of 1969 was the worst and it covered the whole of PCH. It took quite a long time to recover from the slide and to open PCH. Mother Nature has her own ways of showing her power. The week of the slide, my whole master bedroom flooded with water and we did not have heat. I also welcomed our second son that week just before the slide.
Wel,?l that certainly shows that we cannot expect a fix anytime soon doesn’t it? I can just imagine the city and private property owners combining to agree on a plan for the top and getting it actually done in the next century. I surely will be dead before that happens. Meanwhile, I only have to go through that horrendous traffic jam 2 x a day for one day a week. I cannot imagine the frustration of everyone else with a daily commute. It is one thing to live with occasional natural messes but quite another to live with exasperating beaurocracy.
Why can you not leave the private party out of it ?
Put a wall at the border of what is Cal Trans property. And start tomorrow.
Why has that not been mentioned? Surely we are not waiting just for the private owner to agree, are we?
We need to be informed. What ARE we waiting for? Somebody, tell us.
Our governor could show some leadership by causing this to done ASAP, or even HE will be stuck in the traffic mess when he wants to go to lunch in Malibu..
After the major slides of the 1950s and 1960s which destroyed streets, infrastructure and many homes in the Tramonto Landslide, the City of LA and Caltrans funded a significant study which included detailed remediation of the landslide. Due to its long history of slides, the URS study concluded that residential development is not an option for the active landslide. For decades, the city did nothing and abandoned our streets in Castellammare allowing the potholes and deep ruts to allow water to drain into the slide. Then, out of the blue Demos development purchases the land in closed-door pocket sale with the blessings of the city to green light every aspect of the multi-home development on the landslide without the drainage recommended by the URS study. The developer was clear that their proposed 15,000 sq. ft. homes would not address the entire slide. Their promise was that they would secure these huge homes using shear-pins which would allow the slide to flow beneath them and that this would contribute to the remediation of the slide. However, the problem is that these new homes would be sitting on top of where the URS proposed to install hydraugers to draw water from deep below and send it away from the slide with a network of pumps and pipes. The development will prevent the essential remediation of the landslide forever – which is a very real threat to PCH which has seen this slide take all lanes on PCH in the past.