Residents Insistent on Asilomar Repair Work

Driving west on Almar in Pacific Palisades, it’s hard not to catch your breath as the blue sparkle of the Pacific Ocean comes into view. As you curve around the bend that turns into Asilomar Boulevard, the sweeping seascape is enough to make anyone’local or not’gaze over the bluffs at the horizon. But you’d better not. And if you ARE local, you know better than to make that mistake. A large depression in the southbound lane of Asilomar has turned a segment of this two-lane asphalt concrete street (above PCH and west of Temescal Canyon Road) into one precarious lane. The area, which has been blocked off with saw horses, was damaged during the heavy rains in January and February of 2005. “It’s a totally blind corner,” said Janice Olds, an Asilomar resident who lives a few houses south of the depression. “Cars were hitting that depression and then they would have to get into the other [northbound] lane.” She added that the city put up the cones and construction horses only two weeks ago. According to the city’s preliminary geotechnical report on the street’s storm damage (dated January 18, 2006), the depression has grown progressively worse since the rains, settling “approximately 12 inches, which has created a noticeable drop in the surface of the street and has become a hazard to vehicular traffic.” Olds and her neighbors have been urging the city to repair the storm-damaged area, which they believe goes much deeper than the surface. “The problem, theoretically, is from the sewer system rupturing in the 1994 [Northridge] earthquake,” said Olds, who has lived on Asilomar for 27 years. She wonders whether the quake might have also activated an ancient slide which has been causing the land to move. In 1998, the city repaired the sewer beneath Asilomar, but in subsequent years city engineers discovered two weakened planes underlying the street’one at approximately 35 ft. below the ground surface (bgs) and the other at 85 ft. bgs. Since then, Olds said, residents in the Asilomar bluffs area have continued to experience drainage problems. Because Asilomar is a designated federal highway, the city submitted a request for funding in late January to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), asking for approval and designation of the road as an Emergency Relief project. The city’s plan focuses on repairing the street but not the troublesome 200-ft. slope directly below Asilomar, which has contributed to the destabilization of the street, because the majority of the slope is under the control of private owners. Puerto del Mar, a privately owned street, traverses the slope approximately 30 ft. below Asilomar. A paved portion of the roadway has become impassable to vehicular traffic because of tension cracks and settlement in the street. Two mobile home parks, Palisades Bowl and Tahitian Terrace, lie at the bottom of the hillside. These parks are regulated by the state. In January 2005, residents at Palisades Bowl were evacuated from 12 units at the bottom of the slope when persistent rains caused the hillside to move and the streets within the park to buckle. According to Andrea Epstein, deputy to City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, the city is planning to start temporary repairs on Asilomar Boulevard in early May. “The work will include replacing the curb and gutter and repaving the roadway at the depression area,” Epstein told the Palisadian-Post on April 10. She added that Rosendahl has requested that the Bureau of Street Services “fill certain cracks and voids in the parkway area” with slurry. Olds does not believe that filling a hole or two will help. “I want it dewatered; the drainage has to improve,” she said. “We just don’t need cosmetic things. It’s like sticking your finger in a dike ready to burst.” About three months ago, a sinkhole appeared just south of the depression, on the dirt area along the top of the slope. Last Wednesday, the city filled the large, pond-shaped sinkhole with concrete and blocked it off with saw horses. “I think the way the city responds is, the disaster happens and then they respond,” said Olds, who, along with seven other families, hired a lawyer and a geologist to evaluate the damage. They have not filed a lawsuit against the city, but Olds said they are discussing the possibility. “Collectively, my neighbors say that it’s a lawsuit,” Olds said. “If we don’t get action, then a lawsuit would be the way we would go.” She added that “the city is going to be sued one way or another, if [the hillside] falls. Should it fall, it could be a killer slide.” The Palisades Community Council will discuss the Asilomar issue at its next meeting on April 27. Robert Hancock and Craig Kunesh, geotechnical specialists from the L.A. City Bureau of Engineering, are scheduled to provide an update on the street’s condition.