Hotell Terbaik Jogja - Mar. 27--In recent years, Palos Verdes Peninsula and San Pedro residents have known that heavy rain means flooding will almost certainly force the closure of one of their main thoroughfares.
Where 25th Street in San Pedro crosses the border into Rancho Palos Verdes, deep, sharply carved San Ramon Canyon flushes mud and debris into the roadway during intense storms, blocking drains and causing waters to rise.
During the fierce rainy season of 2005, the road was shut down for five days straight, cutting off the main artery between the east side of The Hill and San Pedro, and leaving cars stuck in the mud.
"It was what I call a bad scene," said Ron Dragoo, Rancho Palos Verdes' senior engineer.
Those dramatic storms focused the city's attention on another serious problem a few miles to the west at McCarrell Canyon, where several homes were damaged by mudflows.
With a $9 million storm drain project complete there, the city is turning to San Ramon Canyon, where officials say much more expensive repairs have become urgently needed.
That's because erosion of steep canyon walls has rapidly accelerated in recent years, and more and more silt and debris has filled the canyon's mouth. Sloughing from the small Tarapaca Landslide, on the eastern side of the canyon, has contributed to the sediment.
San Ramon Canyon turned into a major issue during the November council election, with each of the seven candidates saying repairs would
be a priority for them.
"This is a big issue for our city," Mayor Steve Wolowicz said.
This past winter, the roadway, which becomes Palos Verdes Drive South as it moves west over the municipal border, was shut down at least a half-dozen times -- though only for a few hours each time.
One elderly San Pedro man wrote to the Daily Breeze about a January storm that left his stalled Subaru stranded as a "raging flood" rose to his car's windows. Robert Whitall wrote that he
was trying to reach his home in Palos Verdes Shores, a retirement community of mobile homes directly below the canyon.
When his vehicle started to float in the rainwater, an unknown young driver of a jacked-up pickup truck rescued him. His own car, he said, was a total loss.
Since 2005, Rancho Palos Verdes has taken turns with Los Angeles paying for cleanup. It costs the smaller city about $30,000 each time a contractor is hired to do the job, Dragoo said.
The inconvenience of road closures and cost of cleanup aside, city officials worry about increased emergency response times that could occur when 25th Street is closed. Drivers trying to access the west side of The Hill from San Pedro have to navigate hilly, curvy neighborhood streets and go miles out their way to avoid flooding.
A more serious fear is that a severe storm could rapidly accelerate erosion in the canyon, causing the switchbacks above, on curvy Palos Verdes Drive East, to collapse irreparably. Or floodwaters could overwhelm a concrete wall on 25th Street that protects more than 250 homes in San Pedro.
"That could be a catastrophe of the first order," Wolowicz said.
Inside the canyon -- sometimes called Tarapaca Canyon for the road that sits at its top -- the narrowing, rock-strewn ground is dotted with detritus. A rusted, beat-up Suzuki Samurai is half buried in the hillside. A camouflage tent is surrounded by trash -- apparently a homeless camp.
It's so quiet that you can hear dirt dropping lightly from the canyon walls.
"The soil is real soft. You touch it and it just falls," Dragoo said. "It's kind of scary."
At a meeting earlier this month, City Council members remarked on dramatic pictures of Dragoo standing in the canyon, with Palos Verdes Drive East guardrails ominously visible atop canyon walls.
The council approved a $500,000 study to draw up plans to ameliorate problems in the canyon. The work itself is expected to cost $20 million to $30 million.
It would be the largest construction undertaking ever addressed by Rancho Palos Verdes, which has a population of 44,000 and an annual operating budget of about $19 million.
Though city officials
have beseeched local state and federal elected officials for support, funding has yet to be identified for construction.
Complicating matters is the fact that the canyon traverses Rancho Palos Verdes and a corner of Los Angeles County's Deane Dana Friendship Park, letting out in the city of Los Angeles.
Negotiations with the three parties have not produced an accord, though Los Angeles has plans to improve drainage once the debris and mudflow is addressed by Rancho Palos Verdes.
"It may be our street but it's your dirt" -- that's what Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn told Wolowicz, he said.
Hahn, along with county Supervisor Don Knabe, have given the city letters of support for the project.
Rancho Palos Verdes hopes to remove most of the water that courses through the canyon, reducing the erosion it causes. The city will probably also have to shore up canyon walls.
Los Angeles-based consultants Harris and Associates are expected to produce three options, as well as a short-term fix, in a study that will take 10 to 12 months, Dragoo said.
After that is done and a state-required environmental review is complete, the city will need to find some serious cash to pay for the project.
Officials plan to apply for federal transportation funding. Requests for help directly from members of Congress have not gone anywhere substantial.
House Republicans this month announced that they would seek no earmarks for specific projects in their home district, so Rancho Palos Verdes is out of luck with Rep. Dana Rohrbacher.
Council members discussed appealing to Rep. Jane Harman, a Democrat who represents the neighboring congressional district.
"It's unfortunate that a project like this comes under the heading of earmarks," Wolowicz said. "We're staving off disaster. We'd like to emphasize that. It's a widespread concern that involves a lot of folks."
Where 25th Street in San Pedro crosses the border into Rancho Palos Verdes, deep, sharply carved San Ramon Canyon flushes mud and debris into the roadway during intense storms, blocking drains and causing waters to rise.
During the fierce rainy season of 2005, the road was shut down for five days straight, cutting off the main artery between the east side of The Hill and San Pedro, and leaving cars stuck in the mud.
"It was what I call a bad scene," said Ron Dragoo, Rancho Palos Verdes' senior engineer.
Those dramatic storms focused the city's attention on another serious problem a few miles to the west at McCarrell Canyon, where several homes were damaged by mudflows.
With a $9 million storm drain project complete there, the city is turning to San Ramon Canyon, where officials say much more expensive repairs have become urgently needed.
That's because erosion of steep canyon walls has rapidly accelerated in recent years, and more and more silt and debris has filled the canyon's mouth. Sloughing from the small Tarapaca Landslide, on the eastern side of the canyon, has contributed to the sediment.
San Ramon Canyon turned into a major issue during the November council election, with each of the seven candidates saying repairs would
be a priority for them.
"This is a big issue for our city," Mayor Steve Wolowicz said.
This past winter, the roadway, which becomes Palos Verdes Drive South as it moves west over the municipal border, was shut down at least a half-dozen times -- though only for a few hours each time.
One elderly San Pedro man wrote to the Daily Breeze about a January storm that left his stalled Subaru stranded as a "raging flood" rose to his car's windows. Robert Whitall wrote that he
was trying to reach his home in Palos Verdes Shores, a retirement community of mobile homes directly below the canyon.
When his vehicle started to float in the rainwater, an unknown young driver of a jacked-up pickup truck rescued him. His own car, he said, was a total loss.
Since 2005, Rancho Palos Verdes has taken turns with Los Angeles paying for cleanup. It costs the smaller city about $30,000 each time a contractor is hired to do the job, Dragoo said.
The inconvenience of road closures and cost of cleanup aside, city officials worry about increased emergency response times that could occur when 25th Street is closed. Drivers trying to access the west side of The Hill from San Pedro have to navigate hilly, curvy neighborhood streets and go miles out their way to avoid flooding.
A more serious fear is that a severe storm could rapidly accelerate erosion in the canyon, causing the switchbacks above, on curvy Palos Verdes Drive East, to collapse irreparably. Or floodwaters could overwhelm a concrete wall on 25th Street that protects more than 250 homes in San Pedro.
"That could be a catastrophe of the first order," Wolowicz said.
Inside the canyon -- sometimes called Tarapaca Canyon for the road that sits at its top -- the narrowing, rock-strewn ground is dotted with detritus. A rusted, beat-up Suzuki Samurai is half buried in the hillside. A camouflage tent is surrounded by trash -- apparently a homeless camp.
It's so quiet that you can hear dirt dropping lightly from the canyon walls.
"The soil is real soft. You touch it and it just falls," Dragoo said. "It's kind of scary."
At a meeting earlier this month, City Council members remarked on dramatic pictures of Dragoo standing in the canyon, with Palos Verdes Drive East guardrails ominously visible atop canyon walls.
The council approved a $500,000 study to draw up plans to ameliorate problems in the canyon. The work itself is expected to cost $20 million to $30 million.
It would be the largest construction undertaking ever addressed by Rancho Palos Verdes, which has a population of 44,000 and an annual operating budget of about $19 million.
Though city officials
have beseeched local state and federal elected officials for support, funding has yet to be identified for construction.
Complicating matters is the fact that the canyon traverses Rancho Palos Verdes and a corner of Los Angeles County's Deane Dana Friendship Park, letting out in the city of Los Angeles.
Negotiations with the three parties have not produced an accord, though Los Angeles has plans to improve drainage once the debris and mudflow is addressed by Rancho Palos Verdes.
"It may be our street but it's your dirt" -- that's what Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn told Wolowicz, he said.
Hahn, along with county Supervisor Don Knabe, have given the city letters of support for the project.
Rancho Palos Verdes hopes to remove most of the water that courses through the canyon, reducing the erosion it causes. The city will probably also have to shore up canyon walls.
Los Angeles-based consultants Harris and Associates are expected to produce three options, as well as a short-term fix, in a study that will take 10 to 12 months, Dragoo said.
After that is done and a state-required environmental review is complete, the city will need to find some serious cash to pay for the project.
Officials plan to apply for federal transportation funding. Requests for help directly from members of Congress have not gone anywhere substantial.
House Republicans this month announced that they would seek no earmarks for specific projects in their home district, so Rancho Palos Verdes is out of luck with Rep. Dana Rohrbacher.
Council members discussed appealing to Rep. Jane Harman, a Democrat who represents the neighboring congressional district.
"It's unfortunate that a project like this comes under the heading of earmarks," Wolowicz said. "We're staving off disaster. We'd like to emphasize that. It's a widespread concern that involves a lot of folks."
Street flooding problem
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