Businesses struggling as Topanga Canyon landslide removal stalls

Business owners in Topanga want everyone to know that they are still open during the extended closure of a section of Topanga Canyon Boulevard due to a landslide in early March.

On Thursday, Caltrans announced the closure would likely extend until the fall as thousands of tons of dirt, rock and debris are still covering the road and can’t be safely cleared for now.

State Road 27 remains closed from Grand View Drive, just south of Topanga, to Pacific Coast Highway, which means the town is essentially a dead-end for now, and business owners say they are struggling.

Topanga Canyon still ‘too dangerous’ to reopen

“People used to drive through here to go to work, and now they use the 101 or the 405,” Claire Denis, owner of Café Mimosa, told KTLA on Friday. “People were coming for the weekend and tourists, and people from the city … Now, they either don’t come, or they don’t drive all the way down here.”

The town is still accessible from the San Fernando Valley, but the closure from the south is having a significant impact on vehicle and ultimately foot traffic, businesses say.

“We’re having problems doing our deliveries,” Terry McBrian with Topanga Lumber Company said. “We can’t go down Topanga to PCH. We have to go all the way around to Malibu Canyon, or if [the customer] is on the westside, we have to take the 101 to the 405.”

The landslide occurred on March 9 during an intense rainstorm that caused flooding and mudslides in many areas of Southern California.

Caltrans says crews are facing several major obstacles in getting the estimated 9.2 million pounds of earth cleared and the road reopened.

“Water continues to seep out from underneath the dirt, mud and rocks, indicating the mass may move at a given moment,” Caltrans spokesperson Jim Medina told KTLA 5 News on Thursday. “A rainstorm over this past weekend further saturated the unstable hillside.”

Medina said crews will need to remove material from the top down since clearing from the bottom will only bring down more earth and boulders.

The public can submit questions to Caltrans by email at Topanga@dot.ca.gov.

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