City to Build Bulkhead on Via Bluffs

Construction Awaits Steel Supply

Construction to prevent dangerous erosion along a 500-ft.-long section of the storm-damaged Via de las Olas bluffs could begin as soon as July. Largely funded by the Federal Emergency Management Authority or FEMA, the $3.5-million project could provide decades more stability to a bluff with a calamitous geological history. L.A. city construction crews await a supply of dozens of large steel pilings, which are necessary to build the new bulkhead. Public Works engineers say construction could start as soon as the steel is delivered. If construction begins in July, the Department estimates that the bulkhead could be completed by the end of December, before the traditional winter storm season. As reported in the Palisadian-Post, large storms in the winter of 2005 caused soil under Via de las Olas to become supersaturated. That meant a loss of structural support for the city street, which has buckled under strain. Torrential storms brought large-scale landslides in the 1950s and 1960s at Via de las Olas. And in 1956, acres of bluffs collapsed onto Pacific Coast Highway. Ever since then, the edge of the bluffs has inched closer to houses along Via. And the bluffs’ instability has been a fact of life for residents. In January, city sanitation engineers say that land movement there ruptured sewer pipes, releasing 65,850 gallons of raw sewage. Unlike the current wooden bulkhead which is built at the edge of the bluff and braces one small segment of the street, the new bulkhead will be buried underground. According to Public Works engineers, the only improvements that will be seen after construction will be a new curb and gutter, asphalt patching adjacent to the curb and gutter, and a new metal vehicular guardrail. The smaller bulkhead currently in place will not be changed by the construction project, according to construction plans. In 2005, FEMA awarded $2.6 million for the project after locals mounted a campaign through the area’s Congressman Henry Waxman. The state and city are sharing the remaining $1-million cost. As part of her seventh-grade class project to familiarize students with government several years ago, Haley Orr was among the first to lobby Waxman on behalf of her street. Orr said that the street seemed abandoned by the city, riddled with bumps and stress fractures. ‘I saw other streets being repaired, but this one kept falling away,’ Orr recalled last week. ‘It’s pretty scary that it’s gotten this far. But I guess anything is better than nothing. And nothing is what we’ve had for years.’ The new bulkhead will start directly across from 15251 Via de las Olas and end at 15205, across the street from about a half-dozen homes. Although the multi-million-dollar project will only span the length of about a half dozen homes on the street, bluffs residents say that the benefits will be widespread. ‘If our bluffs are stronger there, all the people who live on the bluff will feel that their homes are in a safer position,’ says Fran Diamond, who lives at the end of Swarthmore Avenue. ‘It’s better for us if the bluffs around us are not in danger of falling. The bluffs are not just a place for homes. They’re also a resource for the community. It’s a park where many people come to look at the sunset and the ocean.’ Last November, the board of Public Works received five bids from independent contractors for the multi-million dollar contract. But engineers there say that a delay in steel delivery necessitated assigning the project to the Bureau of Street Services (BSS). That news dimmed Clif Carlson’s hopes of the project finishing by its December target date. The 35-year Via de las Olas resident considers the bulkhead a godsend to end ‘land-creep.’ But he worries that if the city takes over the project, it will not enforce a strict construction deadline. ‘The BSS has constructed most of the bulkheads for the city’s Storm Damage Repair Program,’ Public Works Spokesperson Stephanie Interiano told the Post. ‘They are able to construct these bulkheads quickly, cost effectively and with a high standard of quality.’ ——- To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call ext. 28.