A road closure that cut off Topanga residents from their main route to the coast and forced lengthy detours will reopen Sunday, months ahead of officials' initial estimate.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday will announce the accelerated reopening of a stretch of Topanga Canyon Boulevard that was closed after a landslide on March 9 covered the road with dirt, rocks and a car-sized boulder. That month, storms hit the area and caused widespread damage.
“I cannot overstate how important it has been to the state and everyone involved to see Topanga Canyon Boulevard open as quickly and safely as possible,” Newsom said in a statement.
Also known as State Route 27, the road from Pacific Coast Highway to Highway 118 is busy and scenic.
Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, Topanga Canyon Boulevard connects Malibu to the western San Fernando Valley and serves as the main artery for Topanga residents to access PCH. Local businesses, isolated by the closure, have suffered. Meanwhile, residents have had to take alternative routes that can increase travel times.
A landslide blocks Topanga Canyon Road on April 20.
(Caltrans District 7)
Residents' frustration was “understandable,” said Lauren Wonder, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation. “It was difficult for them to move.”
Topanga Canyon Boulevard is also the evacuation route for Topanga Canyon, “making the reopening of this road especially critical as fire season approaches,” Newsom's office said in a news release.
Earlier this month, Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency to help secure federal funds to repair roads damaged by fierce spring storms, including the two-lane highway.
Initially, officials projected the closure between Grand View Drive and PCH would last into the fall.
However, it turned out that there was less dirt, rock and other materials to remove than anticipated and that the landslide was not as deep as originally thought, according to Wonder.
Caltrans personnel were unable to reach the slide area to make a more accurate estimate until the ground stopped moving, he said. The area remained unsafe for weeks.
In the end, crews removed about 15,000 cubic yards of material, far less than the 50,000 to 90,000 they thought they would have to deal with, he said.
The type of sliding that occurred is what is known as translational, which Wonder described as “something like a tablecloth sliding off the table.” In other words, only the top layer of soil fell.
Once the slide was stopped and visual assessments were made, an access road was built adjacent to the area, he said.
This allowed crews to bring heavy equipment to the site and begin digging from top to bottom, he said.
It was still a sizable landslide, believed to have been larger than another major one that occurred there in the 1940s, officials said.
According to the governor's office, crews worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week to stabilize the area and clear the road.
“Thanks to the diligent efforts of the state along with crews helping on the ground and the support of locals,” Newsom said, “this repair job has exceeded all of our expectations by opening months ahead of initial estimates.”
The site of the Topanga Canyon Road landslide on May 20.
(Caltrans District 7)
On Sunday both lanes of the road will be opened. There may be occasional one-way traffic control measures to complete additional repairs, officials said.
Wonder said crews could plant seeds or place cable mesh on the hill in an effort to prevent more material from falling into that area.
“It's an area that's constantly moving, so we're doing our best,” Wonder said. “We are always monitoring to be able to preserve [and] protect the safety of motorists. Will this happen again? Could.”
A temporary traffic light installed on one-way Tuna Canyon Road on PCH, a detour route toward the coast, will remain on for a while, he said.
