Emergency PCH repairs at Carbon Beach washed out by surf Play

Emergency repairs to hold up Pacific Coast Highway above the ocean have failed at Carbon Beach in central Malibu. The embankment is now a complete washout. The road is held up only by a 40-foot-high chunk of vertical sand, rocks, and dirt.

It became apparent over the weekend that recent high surf has completely destroyed a temporary breakwater and retaining wall that the state hurriedly installed two weeks ago. This was at the place where a house burned down during the Palisades fire, at address 22006 PCH, directly across the street from the fire station at Carbon Canyon.

Repairs consisted of installing wooden beams into vertical I-beams held in place with lag screws. The ocean made short work of that, and it then washed away the pile of concrete K-rail and unengineered fill material behind the wooden beams. The beams fell in the water and the fill material quickly eroded.

The state had told neighbors they expected the temporary repairs to last nine to ten months while they came up with a permanent solution. They lasted less than one month. The highway just across the street from the Carbon Beach fire station once again has no protection at all from any big waves that come in. There is no word from Caltrans on what they plan to do about this.

Caltrans has also yet to repair the ocean washouts at two locations between Malibu and Ventura. These are out near Point Dume, but they still remain open with no protection next to the traffic lanes.

The one on PCH at the Giant Sand Dune area is right next to the road and the drop-off is only about four feet. But further east at Deer Creek there's a hole that goes down to the ocean 40 feet. Caltrans has brought in large rocks to stabilize the road at Deer Creek, but they're still sitting on the uphill side of the road, where they sat all weekend waiting for installation.

When those go in, it becomes apparent that Caltrans will probably have to close the highway for short times. No word from Caltrans as to when that will happen.