Burst Water Main Adds to Traffic Delays

The skies were clear, the Earth did not quake, and no fires licked at the hillsides, but drivers navigating Topanga Canyon Boulevard near Fernwood recently found themselves snarled in traffic.

The delays were not entirely unexpected. Caltrans was scheduled to pave a section of the road, which was damaged by El Nino rains, near Fernwood Pacific Drive last Thursday and Friday, said Caltrans spokeswoman Jeanne Bonfilio. But as work crews gathered on the asphalt Thursday, somewhere beneath their boots a 40-year-old water main was getting ready to burst.

“They were in the process of paving the other lane when it happened,” said Mark Carney, a regional superintendent for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works. Water from the corroded pipe began streaming onto the road, tying up traffic for hours as the DWP replaced a 4-foot section of the water main.

“It took me almost a full hour to get from Pacific Coast Highway to the top where they were working,” said Rody Salkeld, who commutes from her Topanga home to Westwood every day. Normally, Salkeld said, that drive up Topanga Canyon to Fernwood Pacific takes about 12 minutes.

On Monday, commuter woes continued as Caltrans warned drivers to expect up to an hour delay on Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Traffic was reduced to a single lane, alternating northbound and southbound, as workers repaved and striped the road.

Battered through the seasons by fires, floods and mudslides, some Topanga residents have learned to take such inconveniences in stride.

“I take a Zen attitude,” said Alan Adler, a resident who works in West Los Angeles. “If I have to wait, I wait.”