Caltrans: Zuma Underpass Will Not Be Opened, Not Now, Probably Not In Future

Malibu residents are not going to like this.

Council member Haylynn Conrad doesn’t like this.

But a Caltrans official told her yesterday that there is no way that the Zuma Creek underpass will be reopened anytime soon.

It may stay shut forever.  

Yesterday … council member Conrad and the Caltrans project manager Yoon Kang looked at water flowing down the creek … where traffic used to run. 

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COUNCIL MEMBER: “This is where all the accidents happen coming now.”

CALTRANS GUY. “A lot of things need to be looked at.”

The creek has changed course and is flowing on what used to be a safe shortcut under the state highway.

The  Caltrans official said yesterday that they are looking at an emergency traffic light … or maybe even a traffic circle … up above at the detour.

They agree that something needs to be done  … at the crash-prone traffic signal at PCH and Westward Beach Road. 

Zuma Creek has changed its course in the underpass.

It has now flooded the concrete flood control channel … that had been pressed into service as a beach access road 70 years ago.

Residents coming up from Point Dume also use the underpass to avoid crossing multiple lanes of fast traffic.

A big boss at Caltrans made it clear … the state cannot dig out the underpass.

Caltrans manager is Joon Kang.

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“Caltrans is not saying anything.

“The permitting agency is saying you just cannot issue an emergency permit over and over every year to clean this out.

“This is not a permitted road … never been intended to be a road … it is supposed to be a drainage channel …

“It is operating the way it was supposed to.

“Water gets here and is flowing. 

“So it operates the way it is intended.”

And … the Caltrans guy says neither the city nor county will be able to get permits from the state Water Board or Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the flow of the creek into an unused section of the structure.

The long range solution may be a traffic circle at PCH at the complicated dogleg intersection with Broad Beach Road and Bonsall Drive.

That intersection is on a curve … with terrible sight lines because of bushes and trees and fences on private property. 

There have been serious crashes there for years … but the amount of cross traffic has increased dramatically since the underpass flooded three years ago. 

Malibu officials were put on notice 11 years ago that the underpass roadway was in jeopardy … and that the traffic loop to and from Zuma Beach was going to close. 

A traffic study done in 2015 said something had to be done to replace the underpass and realign the zigzag intersection up on PCH at Broad Beach Road.

The 2015 study recommended hooking the access to Westward Beach and Zuma Beach in to the traffic signal on PCH at Busch Drive. 

That 2015 traffic study recommendation sat in the shelf … ignored … not on any Caltrans or city of county beaches and harbor fix it list.

Until the road flooded. 

Las Posas Road Victims Named, One Was 66-Year-Old Malibu Resident

Official last night confirmed that 66 year old Douglas Baron of Malibu was killed in a grinding head-on crash on Las Posas Road in the fields between Camarillo and Malibu.

Another man, Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez de Rodriguez, 48, of Oxnard, also was killed.

Both of the men’s deaths were deemed accidental, but the CHP case is still reportedly open.

Baron was reportedly a resident of the Broad Beach area, and had children attending local schools, according to social media posts. 

The crash was at 1:24 p.m. Wednesday on a straight stretch of Las Posas … no cross traffic … about 1/2 mile north of Hueneme Road.

Rodriguez was driving a Ford Expedition towards the coast. A vintage, orange Porsche Coupe was driven north on Las Posas by Baron.

Evidence and witness statements indicate that Rodriguez’s Expedition crossed the center line … into the path of the Porsche. The cars smashed into each other … and ended up in the fields next to the road.

This was about midway between PCH and the Camarillo shopping center.

The CHP saids Baron was killed instantly. Rodriguez died later at a hospital.

Last Saturday night. several people were gathered around a small shrine with votive candles, in the vegetable fields.

Missing Alzheimers Patient Located This Morning At Oxnard Hospital

A Malibu man with Alzheimers Disease was found safe, a day after going  missing after visiting his brother up in Port Hueneme.

John Murphy’s family ha filed a missing persons report with Port Hueneme police.

Murphy is 79 years old.

He’s 5-10 … weighs 175 … bald .. with a grey beard.

It’s not known if he was driving or inside a car. 

County Manages Not To Come Up With Proposals To Build New Library Facilities, One Year After Council Asks For Options

Malibu’s library fund has swollen to 28 million dollars … 

This is money collected by the state that is set aside by law for library construction and for providing library services.

It’s controlled by LA County’s library system … but the city council has an agreement that gives Malibu a voice in how the money is spent. 

Today at 3 … a city council committee will review how the county wants to spend the Malibu money.

The Malibu Library staff is recommending that they add a dedicated Psychiatric Social Work Consultant to provide resources for unhoused community members and those recovering from wildfire impacts. 

That’s 190 thousand dollars per year.

The sound system in the library meeting room needs to be replaced.$150,000. 

Replace children’s study tables … $30,000.

Last year the city council asked the library to some up with plans for a possible Western Malibu facility.

Also … to look into renovating and maybe expanding the existing Malibu Library.

This might be in the form of an “arts/Literacy/Technology Alternate library space at the Malibu Library or another location.”

No progress has been reported on that direct city council request.

Just a “we’re working on it.” 

Again … there is a 28 million dollar balance in the library fund … 

There are critical unmet needs for community space … a seniors center or other library-related facilities in Malibu.

The city council library subcommittee meeting is at 3 o’clock at City Hall.  

MoonShip Will Land Off San Diego in 12 Days

The Artemis II space mission to return American astronauts to deep space will launch tomorrow from the Kennedy space port in Flordia. 

The four astronauts will splash down 120 mile for so from Malibu 10 days later. 

No exact landing place has been announced to the public. 

Only a vague location …  several miles off the San Diego County coast.

NASA’s Artemis Landing and Recovery team and U.S. Department of War personnel will be assisting the crew out of the Orion spacecraft to transport them to a waiting recovery ship.

The teams have been training for the actual splashdown for several years.

Ivor Davis, 87, Dies. He Wtote Of Beatles Visit And Infamous Malibu Murders 

Ivor Davis has died. 

The longtime Malibu resident passed asway in his bed … surrounded by family … yesterday.

He was 87. 

Ivor Davis was almost like Zelig in the 1960s.

He popped up everywhere. 

As a foreign correspondent for the Daily Mail .. he was friends with the Beatles.

In fact…. They invited him to accompany them on their 1965 trip to America. 

One of his funniest stories was about the time Elvis met the Beatles.  Ivor was there. 

Ivor Davis was standing next to Robert F Kennedy the night he was fatally shot in Los Angeles in 1978.

Charles Manson threatened to kill Ivor Davis after he wrote a book about the then-unsolved murders in California… 

His book that was so thoroughly researched that the prosecutors used it to convict Manson. 

But his most important book … here in Malibu … was about a Murder case that rocked our community in 1979.

That was when Fred Roehler had killed his wife and her son … during a staged boating disaster at Santa Cruz Island.

Ivor Davis was one of many in Malibu who believed his friend Fred Roehler was innocent.

He wasn’t.

Ivor uncovered facts about the double murder that the cops didn’t;t have. 

Here’s Ivor Davis on KBUU … talking about the Malibu murders of 1979 … and Zuma Beach Fred Roehler … who’s serial crook.

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“In San Francisco … when he lived there … a houseboat burned, a boat burned, a guest house burned and a car burned … and Fred Roehler collected insurance on all of those ‘accidents’.”

Roehler had both insurance … life insurance … on his wife and step son shortly before they were killed at Santa Cruz Island.

Fred Roehler remains in prison to this day … at a nursing home prison in Vacaville. 

How did Ivor Davis pull this off? 

Getting close to the Beatles … getting death threats from Charles Manson?

Having a neighbor who killed his wife and stepson??

Here’s Ivor Davis on KBUU two years ago.

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“Things keep happening to me … well … in most cases because I was a foreign correspondent. 

“You know I was in the kitchen with Bobby Kennedy when he got shot.

“I travelled with that rock and roll group from Liverpool which was terrific.

“I traveled with presidential candidates. 

And I was a journalist who was a foreign correspondent … it was my job.

“I mean …  I covered the Manson trial from day one until the end.

“And I wrote books about that.

“So I don’t know … I’m in a position to be an inquisitive mind.

“I had a wife who was a brilliant writer.

“And I don’t know … life happens in a serendipitous fashion.

“That’s all I can explain.”

Ivor Davis was 87. 

60% Chance Of Very Little Rain Tonight

There is a teensy chance of light rain this afternoon and tonight.

Temperatures will cool further today and will end up closer to normal for the first time in a while. 

Clearing tomorrow … we may get some cool and gusty downcoast winds over the next three days.

Moderate to strong offshore winds with significant warming and drying this weekend.