New Traffic Signals Are Among the Proposals to Impact Traffic on PCH

• California Incline Project Work Could Result in Backups

BY HANS LAETZ

The City of Santa Monica is crowing that “years of persistence have paid off,” and a new traffic signal will be installed this fall on Pacific Coast Highway midway between the California Incline and Chautauqua Boulevard.
The signal will be placed next to the city’s new public beachfront recreation center at 415 Pacific Coast Highway, a stretch of road that bears 80,000 cars per day and is the main route into Malibu from the Westside.
But Santa Monica engineers say the signal will be demand-activated and only affect southbound through traffic on Highway 1. “Northbound traffic will always get a green ball, it will only be southbound traffic that gets stopped so left turns may cross the highway,” said Caltrans spokesperson Maria Raptis in Los Angeles.
The City of Malibu’s new traffic light at Corral Canyon Road, beset be design delays, is also set to be installed this fall. Although PCH is heavily traveled there, the amount of traffic on the highway in Santa Monica is much greater.
Santa Monica engineers are also finishing design agreements with Caltrans on a stabilization project for the earthen cliffs that tower above PCH in Santa Monica.
That project is set to go out to bid this fall, with construction equipment allowed in the northbound lanes during non-rush-hour traffic.
A bigger Santa Monica project has gone back to environmental review, as residents of Santa Monica Canyon have asked for greater consideration of the temporary traffic congestion that is expected when the California Incline bridge is torn down and replaced.
Mark Cuneo, a Santa Monica engineer, said the city is working on plans to add a second lane to the ramp from PCH to Ocean Avenue, next to the Santa Monica Pier. But Cuneo said traffic backups in the pier area may be a problem once the Incline is closed to PCH motorists heading to Santa Monica.
“We don’t want to have the people get fed up with the detour and want to use the canyon route” on Entrada Drive and Seventh Street in order to reach downtown Santa Monica.
Other projects, including Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plans to build a massive underground power duct between Sunset and Chautauqua boulevards, have been pushed back, Cuneo said.