Metro grant means PCH roundabouts can't be temporary Play

Another wrinkle in the traffic circle story: the roundabouts can't actually be temporary.

The traffic circles were described to the public and the city council as temporary, coming out in 18 months.

Nope.

The proposed roundabouts in western Malibu cannot be temporary under terms of the grant from LA County's Metro tax agency. That's the conclusion of a new city report issued yesterday.

And that is contrary to the terms of the roundabouts that got tentative approval from the city council earlier this year.

The project that got approved by LA County, Caltrans, the city and the Coastal Commission was supposed to be a temporary 18-month experiment, with the roundabouts being removed after the test.

But now the city staff sees it differently. In a report issued yesterday, city engineers say the roundabouts cannot be considered to be temporary if the $2 million project is to be funded by Metro.

Metro doesn't do temporary.

If the city council wants to install the roundabouts, says the staff, the roundabouts would remain there forever unless replaced with permanent improvements.

Of course, the city council could, at some point in the future, simply order the permanent temporary roundabouts to be scraped away.

Maybe.

One roundabout instead of two.