5 Construction Projects Overwhelm PCH In Malibu

MALIBU, CA – Five construction projects going on simultaneously is expected to clog Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu starting Monday. Contractors are widening the road on PCH at three intersections near the Malibu Civic Center, but eliminating traffic sensors has resulted in very-long red intervals for PCH traffic and has also backed up southbound traffic on Malibu Canyon Road at times.

Monday will be the first rush hour after spring break, and the past week's relatively light traffic is predicted to come to an unfortunate end. Malibu's city manager planned to have engineers, flaggers and sheriff's deputies assist in unclogging traffic jams.

One lane may be closed to traffic at times for the widening project between Cross Creek and Pepperdine University, Caltrans and the City of Malibu warned. Turn lanes are being added to serve a new development in the Civic Center area – that project should be completed by June 1 if everything goes according to plan.

In addition, one PCH lane in each direction will be closed at 9 p.m. Monday evening for installation of a new pedestrian traffic signal east of the pier, in front of the Malibu Beach Inn.

In the Paradise Cove area, construction continues on a $5.7 million project to anchor a slumping section of PCH to solid rock. Although four lanes are open there, they have been narrowed significantly and a 30-mile-per hour speed limit is enforced, with sheriff's deputies writing double fine tickets.

On top of that, Caltrans last week announced plans for rotating closures of various stretches of PCH lanes between the Civic Center and Zuma Beach, where scattered crumbling sections of pavement will be replaced. That eight mile stretch of PCH, between Cross Creek Road and Morning View Drive, is getting $2.2 million worth of repaving. The right lanes and shoulders of the road will be closed at times in either direction Tuesday through Friday.

The project will preserve and rehabilitate pavement.

Additionally, construction at Malibu High School has eliminated more than half of the school's dropoff area, and 7:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. traffic jams on PCH at Zuma Beach were likely, a Malibu radio station reported.

City News Service and Patch staffer Emily Holland contributed to this post