PCH roundabout plan still up in the air, vote set for August 4 Play

Roundabouts and lane restrictions on Pacific Coast Highway west of Broad Beach are still very much up in the air at the Malibu City Council.

About a half million dollars is being spent to design the lane narrowing and roundabouts on PCH at the western end of town.

The city council last spring asked for additional traffic engineering studies to determine if the roundabouts would be safe if the city needs to move a large amount of traffic through the roundabouts during a fire evacuation. That's $184,000, on top of about $376,000 spent to design the changes.

The council still has to make a decision as to whether to spend the $1.4 million it would take to construct the roundabouts.

Some council members have said they have concerns about whether the location chosen for the traffic reduction roundabouts is the right concept in the wrong place. Council members have said it may make a lot more sense to install a roundabout or some other sort of solution on PCH at Zuma Creek, where Westward Beach, Bonsall Canyon, Busch Drive and the Zuma Beach entrance all tangle traffic on a high-speed curve.

The western Malibu roundabouts will come up for a vote on August 4th. The council has never signed off on the concept of roundabouts out past Broad Beach Road, and there may be a need for such speed reducers here in the city.