Huntington Beach : High Tides Again Force Highway Lane Closure

High tides Wednesday morning again forced closure of one lane along Pacific Coast Highway, the California Highway Patrol said.

A 1-mile stretch of the right-hand northbound lane was closed at 8:45 a.m., when about one inch of water lapped onto the edges of the lane between Warner Avenue and Anderson Street, CHP officer John Chilcote said. The lane was reopened at 11 a.m.

On Tuesday, high tides coming over the banks of Huntington Harbour forced closure of the same lane for three hours. But Wednesday’s high tide was two-tenths of a foot lower than Tuesday’s tide, which peaked at 7.2 feet and covered the lane with three inches of water, Chilcote said.

“The tide came a little bit later and a little bit lower today, so it was less extreme,” Chilcote said.

The closure caused few traffic problems because many commuters took alternate routes, he said.

With high tides scheduled to continue to decrease through the week, Chilcote said the lane would probably remain open Thursday morning.

The next period of unusually high tides will hit the coast Dec. 30 through Jan. 1. Chilcote said motorists can expect the far northbound lane of Pacific Coast Highway to be closed again at that time.

“It’s too big of a problem to try to hold back,” he said.