Over Budget, Late and Really Big: Caltrans To Open New Trancas Creek Bridge To Non-Detoured Traffic

After four years … the concrete railings forcing a quick detour on the Trancas Creek Bridge were removed from Pacific Coast Highway last night.

But the zig zag pattern remains for 24 hours … as the old lane markings over the quarter mile section of highway won’t be blasted away until tonight.

This morning. … the concrete railings are gone … replaced by plastic cones and a few barricades to mark the twisting curves.

That should be fun.

The original bridge was 95 years old … its concrete was cracking apart … a federal study had found it to be one of the 100 most decrepit bridges in the entire country.

The Caltrans replacement bridge project has been one mess up after another. 

What was supposed to be a two year project took more than four years to complete..

Caltrans engineers had missed a fiber optic line hanging on the old bridge …

The failed to drill test bore holes in the creek to see if there was any bedrock down there.

There wasn’t.

So the new pilings failed a stress test … they were not deep enough … they had to be increased from 92 feet down to twice that.

That said … the new bridge is wide enough for sidewalks … and bike lanes. 

And of of tomorrow morning … the curves from the old detour will be gone. 

But one change … we can report. 

Caltrans had planned to take out the traffic light at Guernsey Avenue. 

That was supposed to be temporary … to help traffic and pedestrians cross PCH while traffic bunched up from the detour. 

Caltrans tells KBUU News last night they will leave the traffic signal in … temporarily … until the City of Malibu decides what to do with it.

700 Marines To Decamp From Los Angeles

700 United States Marines are being withdrawn from Los Angeles. 

The Pentagon announced that the troops will go back to their bases at Camp Pendleton and elsewhere this week.

It’s the latest scaling back of the Trump administration’s contentious military deployment in Southern California.

The troops had been dispatched to Los Angeles by President Donald Trump starting on June 7.

… after protests erupted over immigration raids. 

More than half will now have been ordered back to base; an 1,892-member brigade of military police remains.

A Pentagon spokesman says “with stability returning to Los Angeles … the 700 Marines presence sent a clear message: Lawlessness will not be tolerated.” 

The military spokesman said the Marines were instrumental in restoring order and upholding the rule of law in LA. 

That story line is a flat out lie … say local officials from the governor on down. .

If anything … sending the Marines into downtown LA inflamed an already tense situation and caused untold economic damage the regional economy. 

Grenades That Killed 3 Deputies Linked to Boat In Marina del Rey

The investigation into the hand grenades that killed three sheriff’s bomb squad members shifted to Marina Del Rey yesterday.

Last Friday … three deputies were killed at the bomb squad headquarters in East Los Angeles.

The hand grenades had been discovered by a cleaning woman at a condo complex near Santa Monica High School.

Yesterday .. search warrants were served at a dock on Marquesas Way… in the marina. 

A nearby boat was also searched. 

The implication was that someone was collecting old hand grenades or other explosive devices.

Homicide detectives and the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives are investigating what may be a case of negligent homicide … against the person who assembled the collection. 

Meanwhile … funeral services are still pending for the bomb squad detectives … Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn.

It was the worst single loss of life in more than 150 years for the LA County sheriff’’s department. 

Malibu Planning Commission Cannot Draw A Quorum, 3 Hearings Cancelled

What if they called a Malibu Planning Commission meeting and nobody came?

That’s sort of what happened last night … as the regularly scheduled Planning Commission meeting was cancelled due to a lack of a quorum.

Three public hearings were continued into August.

One of them was for the popular Fridays night concerts at Trancas Country market. 

The shopping center needs a permit to continue its Friday night concert series … outdoors.

Sheriff’s Deputies Still Searching For Woman Missing From apartment on Las Virgenes Road North of 101

Sheriff’s deputies have renewed their call for public help in looking out for a young woman who has been missing for more than a week north of Malibu.

Aashian Makan has been missing for nearly two weeks.

The 27-year old woman was last see at an apartment building on Las Virgenes Road … north of the 101 Freeway.

That’s an area that is surrounded by wildlands on three sides … and a freeway on the fourth side. 

Deputies say the woman is very petite … 5 foot 5 and 80 pounds. 

She has sandy brown hair. 

Makan may be suffering a mental health issue … and has been off her medication.

80-Pound 5-Foot-5 Woman Remains Missing Off Las Virgenes Road

Those emergency roadside telephones along Pacific Coast Highway west of Malibu have been disconnected. 

In fact … all of the yellow call boxes in Ventura County .. on highway 1 … highway 101 … all off them … have been turned off and covered with black plastic … pending permanent removal.

Cellphones have made them obsolete

It cost the Ventura County government about 850 dollars per call to keep the system up.

Reporter Lance Orozco at KCLU reports from Ventura … 

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KCLU is a news partner of KBUU … they cover the Ventura and Santa Barbara areas at 88.3 FM. 

 

Hard To Pick A Favorite In DMV v. Tesla Lawsuit

Tesla may lose the right to sell cars in California … shut down by the DMV,.

The company sold cars that supposedly could drive themselves.

They can’t.

In fact .. Tesla’s supposedly self driving cars have killed 

The problem?

Product descriptions from Tesla’s website state include: “autopilot”; “full self-driving capability”; a promise of “trips with no action required by the person in the driver’s seat.”

False.  Lies.  Misleading advertising says the state.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that attorneys for the electric car company and the Department of Motor Vehicles are facing off this week before an administrative judge. 

The DMV wants to suspend Tesla’s licenses to manufacture and sell vehicles in California for at least 30 days. 

DMV is also asking for a court order for Tesla to pay an undetermined sum in restitution.

Tesla’s Autopilot system is linked to 467 crashes and at least 58 deaths, with 2 of those involving the Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature.

A Tesla lawyer says the DMV’s complaint is an attempt to hold back advances in self-driving technology by targeting a company right “on the verge of fulfilling the dream” to put autonomous vehicles on the mass market.

Last October …  Tesla held an event at a Hollywood studio to unveil a fully autonomous robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals.

LA Mayor Defends LAFD After Palisades Fire Debacles

LA’s city fire department still does not have a permanent chief.

LA city fire is leaderless after the previous chief left Malibu vulnerable to the Palisades Fire. 

The big agency to our east was caught unprepared when … as predicted 8 days in advance by the National Weather Service … hurricane force Santa Anas arrived last January 8th.

LA County fire had staffed up and had extra trucks and crews on duty as the fire weather arrived. 

LA City Fire failed.

In fact … city firefighters were allowed to go “off shift” and were sent home as the Palisades Fire broke out and spread.

There were other … more fundamental within the City of LA fire preparations ….  hydrants that were out of service … a key reservoir that had been dry for a year due to engineering mistakes … and a mayor who was out of town as a predicted windstorm blew in.

Bass defended the city fo LA on the CBS show Face The Nation yesterday. 

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“No, I don’t think that that’s a problem at all. Our interim has 40 years of experience. In fact he had just recently retired. 

“I called him out of retirement during the fires. He was doing the emergency operation centewr. 

“So he stepped in and didn’t miss a beat by taking over the fire department and we are prepared. 

“We do know that it’s fire season.”

The previous chief … Kristen Crowley… was fired by Bass in the immediate aftermath 

The former fire chief … Ronnie Villanueva .. is filling in for the time being … while the City of LA c

Santa Anas May Blow Less Often, But Stronger, Due To Global Warming

The Santa Ana winds that blast Malibu every fall and winter will become less frequent in the future .… but blow stronger when they do arrive. 

That’s the conclusion of researchers from Princeton University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

And the new predictions echo other studies … that have already looked at the effect of global climate change … global warming … on Southern California.

The new study used high-resolution computer models to simulate how Santa Ana winds will change in the future. 

The authors found that Santa Ana winds will become less frequent in the future. 

That’s because land warms faster than the ocean.

And in the future, the temperature gradient that produces offshore winds ..  by cold air inland … will become weaker. 

That means Santa Ana winds will occur less frequently.

But when the winds do arrive … they will be drier than they are today and could pose greater wildfire risk to coastal Southern California, according to the study.

The new supercomputer research looks at localized geography and the way it affects the Santa Anas.

A UCLA professor who wasn’t on this study tells the San Francisco Chronicle that the latest study “highlights the need for high resolution (computer runs) to simulate the impact of climate change on the Santa Ana wind phenomenon.”

Other meateologists have said the increased land warming in Southern Califnora is adding to the lengthier June Gloom type weather that the coastal region has been experiencing.

The theory is that the nightly cool down is sucking cold air off the ocean … and creating a thicker marine layer than in past years.

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