Headaches Multiply When Slide Subtracts PCH Route

If you usually take Pacific Coast Highway to work in the morning, call in sick. Take that vacation early. Pretend to be on sabbatical. Do whatever you have to do to avoid going to the office. Because the landslide near Las Flores Canyon Road just tacked another hour onto your commute.

Even commuters who don’t take PCH will be affected, because the extra traffic from the coast will add an estimated 10 minutes to the commute on the Ventura Freeway.

Caltrans engineers estimate that the closed section of the state’s most famous coastal route in Malibu handles about 2,000 motorists during the peak period from 7 to 8 a.m., and advise that they all find a map and a decent book-on-tape because there’s no quick way around the problem.

The closure also cuts off a well-traveled shortcut to the Westside from western Los Angeles County.

Recommended detours for those leaving Malibu are Malibu Canyon Road to Las Virgenes Road to the Ventura Freeway, or Kanan Dume Road to the Ventura Freeway. But taking those routes means winding along a narrow mountain road averaging 30 mph--and that’s just to arrive safely at the parking lot known as the Ventura Freeway, smack in the middle of rush hour.

Pity the residents of poor Malibu and Calabasas.

“They live in a very nice area, but there’s a downside,” said Caltrans Associate Engineer Nick Jones. “They suffer for it.”

And their beloved ocean-side road is closed indefinitely, raising the specter of the disastrous Big Rock Mesa slide in 1983, which destroyed more than 230 homes and put PCH out of commission for at least two weeks, Jones said. The effects of the landslide are magnified because PCH is so isolated.

“In other places, you can drive four or five miles and get to another freeway,” Jones says. “If PCH is [closed], where are you going to go?”

For San Fernando Valley commuters who already believe there are quite enough cars on the 101 (between 8,000 and 10,000 cars an hour pass Topanga Canyon Boulevard on the 101 during peak periods), the news isn’t that bad. Although the freeways may have to absorb the extra traffic from PCH, motorists from Malibu and Calabasas will be entering at different points at different times, softening the impact, according to Caltrans projections.

Officials at the Automobile Club of Southern California caution drivers to take extra care navigating the curving roads through the mountains.

“If you can, stagger your hours” and arrange to avoid the roads during rush-hour, said Automobile Club spokesman Jeff Spring. “If not, you’ve got to go through the crunch. Make sure your CD player is running well.”