High surf prompts Malibu repairs along Pacific Coast Highway ahead of more El Niño storms

MALIBU, Calif. () — The high surf kept Caltrans crews busy in Malibu on Monday — workers there doing what they could to prevent more damage to Pacific Coast Highway.

Caltrans had crews shoring up the roadway near Thornhill Broome Beach. The lane on the beach side was closed as the sea water drenched the highway.

Not too far from there, Caltrans was placing some pretty good sized boulders to shore up the shoreline.

From the Palisades burn areas to Ventura County, Caltrans has been working on repairing erosion damage done by the recent storms as well as put in measures to keep mud and debris from damaging work being done to rebuild.

That means Pacific Coast Highway is being taken care of as well. With El Niño predicted to deliver some powerful storms this winter, a spokesman for Caltrans told Eyewitness News that they’re getting ahead of taking care of damaged roadways up and down the Southern California coastline as well as the burn areas.

“Because of the Palisades Fire, we’ve done a lot of repairs already and upgrades to repair the damage from the Palisades Fire,” said Caltrans spokesperson Marc Bischoff. “so there’s a lot of areas along the PCH and along Topanga where we’ve repaired the drainage and the culverts, or if we’ve had to replace them, we upgraded them — we made them larger, we made them longer.”

Bischoff added that they’re adding mesh on the ocean side of PCH in some areas, then laying boulders on top to protect the highway.

So the public is being asked to watch their speed as you travel through Pacific Coast Highway while repair and construction work continues..

Also, be careful when you drive through the Thornhill Broome Beach area because of the high waves pounding the coastline and PCH.

There’s also work to put mesh along the burn scars on PCH to keep rocks from tumbling down. Caltrans will also work on removing some of the bigger rocks that pose a threat.

And if you want to see these big waves, remember to find a safe place to park and be careful. It’s not recommended that you stand on the rocks to watch.