Ocean undermines Westward Beach Road west of new rock barrier Play

The Sunset Restaurant on Westward Beach was open for business Monday night, hours after its front entrance was the scene of huge rocks being dumped by trucks to prevent Westward Beach Road from further falling into the ocean. But it appears more substantial rock work is necessary to prevent the road from tumbling into the ocean just up from Sunset.

L.A. County dumped about 200 linear feet of rocks along the road to prevent its entrance station to Point Dume from eroding away with the sand. But the erosion looked like it would spread up the beach to the west, so the city paid for L.A. County to extend those rocks about 100 feet further — right in front of the Sunset Restaurant.

But the ocean leapfrogged that Sunday and chewed out several hundred feet of beach beyond the rocks. That exposed a water line and undermined the pavement, and that's where it stands as of Monday night.

The section of beach called Free Zuma, up the coast from there, has almost completely washed away. There's less than 40 feet between the churning high tide and the edge of the pavement where most of Free Zuma used to be. And it appears more sand is washing away with every high tide.

Sunset Restaurant Monday got its water service back with some quick work by L.A. County Waterworks. It was open Monday night, although attendance was pretty sparse. The connection from the beach road to Birdview Avenue is open.