Topanga Canyon In Malibu Closed All Weekend For Emergency Repairs
MALIBU (CBSLA) – Topanga Canyon Boulevard, one of the major thoroughfares linking Malibu to Los Angeles and Ventura counties, will be shut down for emergency repairs all weekend in the wake of multiple storms over the past few months which have caused rock and mudslides, eroding the roadway's foundation.
Topanga Canyon Boulevard, also known as State Route 27, will be shut down from 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday between the Pacific Coast Highway and Grand View Drive, according to Caltrans.
The closure will allow Caltrans crews to restore slope embankments which have eroded along Topanga Creek.
Drivers should use the 101 Freeway, Las Virgenes and Malibu Canyon roads as detours. The town of Topanga will remain open.
The 97,000-acre Woolsey Fire broke out Nov. 8 south of Simi Valley. It then jumped the south side of the 101 Freeway near Calabasas and spread into Malibu. The fire destroyed more than 1,500 structures and was responsible for three deaths. It was not fully contained until Nov. 21.
Since then, fire-scorched hillsides in Malibu's canyon areas, which have little to no vegetation to slow debris flows or flooding, have been particularly vulnerable to mudslides.
Malibu residents in the burn area have been forced to evacuate numerous times as a series of storms have pounded the region. Several major coastal and canyon highways, including the PCH, have been intermittently closed by flooding or rockslides.