Trancas Creek bridge project enters final stage after years of delays Play

Five years after it started and three years after it was supposed to wrap up, the Trancas Creek bridge replacement project is now entering its final stage.

Wednesday, L.A. County Waterworks crews began placing the first water pipes across Trancas Creek next to the brand-new Trancas Bridge.

The state finished its part of the bridge work a year ago. A few motorists, you might remember, crashed into the tight S-curve detour that existed for twice as long as it was supposed to.

But after the bridge was finished, it appears that Caltrans and L.A. County did not have their act together on replacing the water main.

In May, the county tried to install 16-inch-wide metal pipes on the benches that had been left for that purpose by the state next to the bridge. The pipes were too big.

The county had to custom-design and build a huge metal I-beam across the creek to sit on those benches, and then install a bunch of custom L-brackets to support the pipe off of the brand-new metal beam.

Frankly, it looks like something I would do in my garage where no one could see it — but this fiasco was done right where a reporter walks his dog by every day.

This bridge has been one visible, expensive disaster after another. It was originally scheduled to be completed in March 2023 but got delayed five times.

Caltrans discovered a fiber optic line on the old bridge just as demolition began.

After the first piles were sunk 92 feet into the creek bed, stress tests were done and they flunked, so they had to drive another 92 feet of deeper pilings.

Then came the redesign of the water main, which is now a county project, not a state project. The county said that project would be done last spring, then September, then by the end of this month, which is one week away.

Now they're saying December.

Similar delays have plagued the bridge building down at Corral Canyon, which is not finished either.

And this comes just as the state is about to start a $69 million reconstruction of PCH across western Malibu.