PCH to Slim Down by One Lane Next Week

Pacific Coast Highway is about to go on a major diet, as construction next week will eliminate one lane in each direction of State Route 1 for a short distance in Santa Monica.

The city of Los Angeles is making a second attempt to construct a sewer line that will divert polluted dry-weather water runoff from canyons leading to the Santa Monica Bay and transfer it to the Hyperion Treatment Plant.

An earlier attempt to build more than a mile of new 4-foot-high sewer pipe ended 900 feet short of its goal two years ago. "Unforeseen soil conditions were encountered by an earlier contractor" during that first effort, causing it to be aborted, according to an L.A. Bureau of Engineering report.

The 900-foot gap extends from just south of Entrada Drive to the Santa Monica Beach House, just north of the California Incline.

Beginning next week, one lane in each direction will be closed as day and night construction takes place, city of Los Angeles engineers said.

During morning rush hours, the center turn lane will be used for a third southbound traffic towards the Santa Monica Pier. That center lane will a third lane of northbound traffic towards Malibu during evening rush hours, and will be used for left turns into residential driveways at other hours, Malibu officials said Friday.

Caltrans will evaluate changing the traffic signal timings along PCH in Pacific Palisades, where some drivers may use Sunset Boulevard or Entrada Drive as alternatives.

Warning signs have been placed as far away as Agoura Hills to warn commuters along the Ventura (101) Freeway. About 80,000 vehicles per day use this section of PCH daily, according to Caltrans records, and many of those are travelling between Ventura County and the Westside.

The entire project may take one year to complete, although the lane closures will not take that much time, L.A. officials said.

PCH commuters also face pending reconstruction of the PCH-Ocean Avenue connector in Santa Monica -- called Moomat Ahiko Way -- later this spring. That reconstruction and repaving will only take a few weeks.

Also looming is a long-term closure of the California Incline route between PCH and Santa Monica, which is slated for demolition and replacement later this year.

--City News Service