Without Erosion Barriers, Parts of Pacific Coast Highway Could Wash Out

Well, if that last round of storms was any indication...

At LAT, "Can Pacific Coast Highway withstand El Niño? Officials pour millions of dollars into creative engineering to make sure it does":

When El Niño storms hit Southern California, Pacific Coast Highway is the first line of battle between man and nature.

This scenic ribbon of asphalt, sandwiched by steep mountains on one side and ocean on the other, has fought with rock slides and erosion since it was built almost a century ago.

El Niño rains of the past have left portions of the coastal route battered. But they also have given transportation engineers and local officials lessons in how to make PCH more stable as California faces what experts forecast will be one of the strongest El Niños on record.

In recent years, officials have spent millions of dollars in creative engineering to strengthen PCH against a double threat: rocks and heavy rain coming down the coastal mountains and high surf crashing in from the ocean. Steel rock netting, concrete debris barriers and fortified sea walls now adorn the iconic route from Santa Monica to Ventura, the highway's roughly 30 most perilous miles.

This winter's conveyor belt of El Niño storms will be a major test of these advances.

"Keeping PCH open from natural disasters coming from both the bluff side and the ocean side is quite the challenge," said Deborah Wong, a deputy director for the California Department of Transportation. "It's at sea level, so there are no pumps to pump anything. It's right by the ocean, where you also have to deal with storm surges."

For tens of thousands of residents and commuters, PCH is the vital route to get safely in and out of their isolated canyon and coastal communities.

"PCH is very vulnerable, but people have to use it every day to get anywhere. It really is a lifeline," Malibu Mayor Laura Zahn Rosenthal said. "It has people living on it, it has stores, it has restaurants, it has parks. The school buses use PCH every day! ... It impacts our security. Let's say parts of PCH come down, and we have a fire, it's much more difficult for fire engines to come through."

Local residents, resigned to a history of mudslides and flooding, are bracing for the worst..

Keep reading.