Two projects to increase traffic safety within Pacific Palisades’ stretch of Pacific Coast Highway await permit approval and funding. Little change is expected within the next three years. One of the projects would change the flow of traffic exiting Gladstone’s Restaurant at PCH and Sunset; the other aims to restore the shoulder to PCH at the Bel-Air Bay Club. Barry Kurtz, a longtime civil engineer with L.A. County and a Palisades resident, envisioned both projects as necessary to reducing accidents on the dangerous, overcrowded highway. He currently works for L.A. County’s Department of Beaches and Harbors, and he has aggressively pushed for the changes, often coordinating meetings with the multiple government bodies which share jurisdiction. For Kurtz, improving safety at Sunset and PCH became personal after witnessing the aftermath of a fatal motorcycle accident several years ago. The driver of an SUV made an illegal left turn out of the Gladstone’s parking lot and violently collided with a southbound motorcyclist. Since then, Kurtz has fought to modify the signal and the flow of traffic there. Currently, visitors enter the parking lot at Gladstone’s at the PCH-Sunset intersection but must leave from the lot’s southern exit. There is no signal at that exit and vehicles must turn right. Instead of driving south and making a legal u-turn at the entrance to Malibu Village, many drivers intending to go north simply make an illegal u-turn from the Gladstone’s exit, and dangerous collisions have resulted. Representatives of Gladstone’s and the County’s Department of Beaches and Harbors met last year and agreed to modify the signal to allow motorists to both enter and exit Gladstone’s at Sunset, said Kurtz, who discussed his plans at last Thursday’s Community Council meeting. Gladstone’s agreed to pay the original estimated cost of $33,000. That cost covers only changes to the signal, and does not include the costs of changing the organization of the parking lot or other structural costs. The County, which has ultimate jurisdiction over the change, has not yet received an application for permits for the project. It is not known when the final plans will be completed. Following a landslide in 1983, Department of Transportation or Caltrans was forced to cut into the shoulder of PCH at the Bel-Air Bay Club, leaving little room for the safe passage of bicyclists and pedestrians. To create a wider shoulder requires building on the edges of the Club’s property. DOT Spokesperson Dave White said that the Club has cooperated with the department’s engineers. Unlike the Gladstone’s signal modification, Caltrans has actively taken on the project, which could mean a faster timeline. Yet engineers with the department don’t expect construction to begin before mid-2008. This project is currently estimated at less than $1 million, but if the costs exceed that figure further delays could be expected. Relocating underground utility lines might add large costs to the project, said Son Dao, a Caltrans transportation engineer.
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