Caltrans to Close Parts of PCH This Week

Lanes of Pacific Coast Highway will be closed intermittently this week as the California Department of Transportation strengthens underground water and sewer lines in Pacific Palisades before it starts shoring up landslide areas in Santa Monica throughout the summer.

Caltrans will work from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily through Friday near Chautauqua Boulevard to encase 650 feet of recently replaced pipeline in concrete.

Night construction is also scheduled from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Because workers will only be able to expose about 25 feet of pipe at a time as it runs back and forth beneath California 1, there is no estimate of how long it will take to finish the project.

Once the pipe is protected, however, construction will start on the extension of the wall on northbound PCH near the California Incline where landslides occurred in January 1993 and February 1995. Work is expected to be finished by October.

All timber has been removed from the existing shoulder and replaced with precast concrete panels. A 1,500-foot extension will consist of steel beams driven into the ground at intervals of six feet, with the precast panels filling in the spaces.

This is the first Caltrans project to use this new construction method, said spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli.

“We’re trying not to impact motorists more than we have to, so we’ll do a little at a time, closing one lane at a time,” she said.

“As the project progresses, we’ll have a better idea if we have to schedule closures.”