Road in Malibu Closed After Slide Causes More Damage

A landslide that has caused Kanan Dume Road in Malibu to drop dramatically triggered further damage Wednesday, creating more fissures in the pavement and making the construction of a temporary detour on the shoulder of the road impossible.

A 200-foot section of the well-traveled street was closed Tuesday after erosion claimed a 30-foot-deep chunk of the road and created long cracks in the asphalt.

The sliding earth, which has been crumbling at a rate of about two inches a month, sank almost five feet Tuesday night, said John Clement, director of public works for Malibu. The landslide blocked a 54-inch-wide storm drain and could eventually threaten downstream properties.

Stopping the erosion before the winter rains begin could cost the city more than $500,000. Malibu’s budget already is stretched thin because the city has spent $16 million to repair fire and flood damage during the past three years, Clement said.

“We simply do not have the funds to undertake a project of this magnitude,” he said.

The city spent $100,000 to patch and fill the landslide last spring after the sinking earth tugged and cracked the road.

“It bought us some time and got us through the busy summer months, but that kind of fix is just not practical now,” Clement said.

Permanent fixes cannot be identified until the city conducts an engineering report that is expected to take up to 45 days, officials said.

The erosion, occurring on the east side of the road about a mile north of Pacific Coast Highway, “has probably been active since the dinosaur days,” said Sarah Maurice, spokeswoman for Malibu.

Clement said maps of the area indicate that the county knew about the landslide when it built the road in the early 1970s. The city is investigating whether any precautionary measures were taken at the time, Clement said.

County officials, however, said that while a map indicated general movement in the area, there was no indication of a specific landslide.