SUNSET BEACH : Consultant to Study Problems on PCH

Nancy Howell’s bid to drive blight from Pacific Coast Highway appeared to pick up speed this week when the County Board of Supervisors selected a consultant to study traffic and drainage conditions on the heavily traveled street.

Howell, a Huntington Harbour resident who owns a business in Sunset Beach, also got a lift earlier this summer when the California Highway Patrol stepped up enforcement action against traffic and parking violators.

She formed the Save Our Coastal Highway Committee last November to crusade against illegal parking, vehicles being abandoned along the roadway, cars put up for sale on the shoulder of the highway and motor homes pulling into paved areas for extended stays.

She also complained about drainage and the absence of curbs, gutters and landscaping on the 1.3-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway between Warner Avenue and Anderson Street in unincorporated Orange County.

Supervisors selected Nolte & Associates of Mission Viejo to identify problems and recommend solutions.

The study is slated to start next month and be completed by next March. It’s expected to cost $60,000 to $80,000.

Howell said Thursday that she is encouraged by developments but added that there are still people violating parking regulations.

She reported that three large trucks were illegally parked Thursday, as was an old car backed up into a camper. “Who knows what’s lurking in there?” she said.

Officials in the county’s Environmental Management Agency said Pacific Coast Highway has experienced drainage problems, both from seawater during storms and from rainfall.

Consequently, the pavement has deteriorated, resulting in subsidence and cracking that worsens drainage problems.