Dean Wenner’s three-story beachfront house on Pacific Coast Highway was destroyed in the Palisades Fire. Photographed at Big Rock Beach in Malibu, Calif., on Thursday, March 20, 2025.
Dean Wenner’s three-story beachfront house on Pacific Coast Highway was destroyed in the Palisades Fire. Photographed at Big Rock Beach in Malibu, Calif., on Thursday, March 20, 2025.
In the latest round of California’s seemingly never-ending battle to protect coastal infrastructure and beaches from erosion, the city of Malibu says a section of world-famous Pacific Coast Highway is now at risk.
The threats to the iconic highway touch on a number of the broader issues facing the state: fire recovery, climate change and the difficulties of adapting coastal infrastructure (most of it planned and built long before climate change entered the state’s planning lexicon) to withstand today’s more frequent and extreme storms and weather events.
In Malibu, erosion threats to Pacific Coast Highway are heightened in the Palisades Fire burn area, where waves now crash right into the remaining foundations of destroyed homes, often just a few feet from the road. Last week, the city of Malibu issued a news release calling on the state’s transportation agency to act fast to “address rapidly worsening coastal erosion” along PCH in the footprint of the Palisades Fire.
Before the Palisades Fire, seawalls attached to beachfront homes protected Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu from erosion. Erosion has rapidly accelerated since the fire destroyed those homes.
Before the Palisades Fire, seawalls attached to beachfront homes protected Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu from erosion. Erosion has rapidly accelerated since the fire destroyed those homes.
“While Caltrans has taken important interim steps to protect the roadway, the City continues to urge the agency to move quickly on permanent stabilization measures to protect public safety and critical infrastructure,” the news release said.
Seawalls attached to homes along PCH previously provided some protection for the roadway, but when the homes were destroyed in the Palisades Fire, those erosion protections disappeared with them. This has left PCH particularly exposed during this summer’s high tides and high surf, which have only accelerated coastal erosion. The city has said its goal is to get stabilization measures in place by this winter, when El Niño conditions are likely to make things worse.
“Left unaddressed, the erosion trend will continue to accelerate, removing the material that supports the roadway embankment. The onset of El Niño conditions this storm season significantly raises the likelihood of heavy rainfall, high surf and wave events that could compress months of expected erosion into a single storm cycle,” Malibu said.
The city says it’s “done everything within its authority” to document conditions and work with partners to permanently stabilize PCH, including completing field observations with Caltrans, monitoring impacted parcels and briefing the Governor’s Office of Los Angeles Recovery.
Caltrans has “started preliminary work” in the area, according to spokesperson Eric Menjivar, including by installing temporary safety barriers on Pacific Coast Highway in an impacted area near Big Rock Beach last month. Caltrans also started “reconstructing the slope along PCH at Big Rock last week and is currently repairing the State-owned seawall near Las Tunas Beach,” Menjivar wrote in an email to SFGATE.
Before the Palisades Fire, seawalls attached to beachfront homes protected Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu from erosion. Erosion has rapidly accelerated since the fire destroyed those homes.
Before the Palisades Fire, seawalls attached to beachfront homes protected Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu from erosion. Erosion has rapidly accelerated since the fire destroyed those homes.
“Caltrans continues to collaborate with the city of Malibu, as well as L.A. County agencies and utility companies, to identify other locations vulnerable to coastal erosion. Caltrans and its agency partners continue recovery operations to strengthen the fortification of PCH against future fire and storm-related damage,” Menjivar wrote.
In July, the department also finished rebuilding two protective walls along PCH that were damaged by the Palisades Fire. Those walls, on the opposite side of PCH from the ocean, will help protect the roadway from rockfalls and landslides.
The rapidly deteriorating condition of PCH in Malibu is just the latest in a summer of erosion and high tides that have battered the California coast, at times also creating unsafe conditions for beachgoers. Also in Malibu, a popular stretch of beachfront was closed indefinitely last week due to erosion caused by recent high tides. In Carlsbad, strong swells caused by Hurricane Genevieve resulted in Tamarack State Beach losing most of its sand in two weeks, just after a beach nourishment project last year that added 400,000 cubic yards of sand. Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains also faced delays and cancellations last month due to waves that washed out the rocks lining the track in South Clemente.
Beachfront property owners face challenges of rebuilding that include regulations, cost of construction, rising sea levels and erosion along the shoreline. Photographed at Big Rock Beach in Malibu, Calif., on Thursday, March 20, 2025.
Beachfront property owners face challenges of rebuilding that include regulations, cost of construction, rising sea levels and erosion along the shoreline. Photographed at Big Rock Beach in Malibu, Calif., on Thursday, March 20, 2025.
If the road isn’t stabilized soon, it could be the next frontier in California’s struggle to keep the iconic Highway 1 fully open along the coast. In Big Sur, storms led to rock- and mudslides that shut down a portion of Highway 1 for three years, causing a financial crunch for local businesses in the area and costing Caltrans at least $82 million to repair.
And coastal erosion isn’t the only existential threat facing Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. Before the Palisades Fire pivoted focus to emergency lane closures and roadway repairs, Caltrans released a master plan feasibility study focused on reducing the rate of collisions along the deadly highway, where cars are prone to speeding and pedestrians often must walk along the road shoulder to access the beach.
Some have even suggested giving up on the road altogether in favor of a high-speed ferry.
—One of SoCal's best bakeries has zero plans to ever expand
—Orange County beach town deeply divided over tiny mouse
—Celebrity chef's new Disneyland eatery sells out its first 2 months in a day
—A historic California seaside pool is the LA hangout hack of the summer
For more SFGATE LA stories, subscribe to our new weeklynewsletter The Southland here.