Pacific Coast Highway reopened after landslide in Pacific Palisades

Pacific Coast Highway north of Santa Monica is open again after a landslide forced crews to close the northbound lanes while they cleared away the debris.

The closure Thursday blocked northbound PCH traffic in Pacific Palisades between Temescal Canyon Road and Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. The distance was short, but “the effect was much larger,” said Caltrans engineer Patrick Chandler.

By 3 p.m. Thursday, crews had cleared the roadway and opened up traffic again.

A geologist with the agency and a private expert hired by the property owner above the highway agreed to cut down a tree along the hillside but keep its stump and roots remaining.

Caltrans has lined the road’s shoulder with six K-rails, or concrete barriers.

ALSO:

Bell trial: After mistrial, next steps for attorneys unclear

Chef who killed wife, then cooked body to be sentenced

$2.5 million in cocaine found stashed in floor of big-rig trailer

-- Joseph Serna

Photo: Work crews clear debris after a landslide closed Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

San Onofre design choices led to nuclear plant shutdown

An executive with the company that manufactured faulty equipment that led to the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear plant defended decisions made in the design of the replacement steam generators.

The company made choices in designing support structures at San Onofre that were intended to prevent one type of vibration, but ended up creating another type of vibration that ultimately led to the plant's closure, said Frank Gillespie, senior vice president with Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems.

The problematic vibration, he said, had not been seen at any other plant before, although it had been observed in experimental conditions.

That vibration led to excessive wear on the tubes, particularly in the plant's Unit 3, where one tube sprang a leak and released a small amount of radioactive steam on Jan. 31, 2012, and eight tubes failed pressure tests.

The nuclear facility has been closed for more than a year.

Mitsubushi discussed the design process in a proprietary report that was made public in a redacted form earlier this month.

Gillespie said designers working on the new system in 2005 put "paramount focus" on controlling vibration and reducing wear. In the process, they added more anti-vibration bars, but made other changes that led to less contact between the bars and tubes.

In Unit 3 in particular, the bars were flatter, leading to about half the amount of pressure between bars and tubes as in Unit 2, the plant's other working reactor unit, which also saw an unusual but less severe amount of wear.

“What they didn’t understand at the time is, some of the steps ... actually made in plane [vibration] worse,” Gillespie said. "...There was an underappreciation for the fact that the pressure of the bars against the tubes actually performed a very important function."

Anti-nuclear activists and some lawmakers -- notably, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)  -- have accused Mitsubishi and plant operator Southern California Edison of being aware of defects in the equipment's design prior to installation and failing to make modifications that might have prevented the problem in order to avoid going through a potentially lengthy license amendment process.

Mitsubishi's root cause report did show that some changes were rejected in part because they would have required a license amendment. The changes were intended to reduce the dryness of the steam flowing around the tubes, which ended up being a factor in the problematic vibration.

Boeing unveils biofilter runoff system at Santa Susana site

 

The Boeing Co. unveiled its new biofilter storm-water runoff system at the former site of a rocket engine test facility at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the Simi Hills near Chatsworth. The biofilter uses plants, soil and other filters to treat storm water runoff before it is released, in the continuing effort to clean up the area, which was heavily polluted by nuclear and aerospace industry testing.

Video by Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Landslide closes northbound PCH near Santa Monica

The Pacific Coast Highway was closed to northbound traffic in Pacific Palisades on Thursday morning because of a landslide, according to traffic reports.

The northbound lanes between Sunset Boulevard and Temescal Canyon Road were closed after 4 a.m., forcing commuters to take alternative routes.

Los Angeles police responded to the scene as bulldozers worked to shove the mounds of dirt and rock off the road. Officials could not immediately say when the coastal road would be reopened.

ALSO:

Reaction from Bell: ‘Rizzo is next!’

Bell trial: Hours after verdicts, tensions flare at City Hall

Man allegedly under influence of nitrous oxide in car crash

-- Joseph Serna

Photo: Work crews clear debris after a landslide closed Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Power plant explosion rocks Long Beach neighborhood

An explosion rocked a Long Beach neighborhood Wednesday morning when a steam pipe ruptured at a nearby power plant.

At about 7:44 a.m., a 5-inch pipe carrying high pressure steam to a boiler at the AES Alamitos plant in south Long Beach near Pacific Coast Highway failed, blasting a plume of steam into the morning air. The blast could be heard up to a mile away, according to local media reports.

“We always strive to be a good neighbor and are sensitive to the impact the noise may have had on the community,” said AES Southland President Eric Pendergraft in a statement. “We responded as quickly as possible to shut down the facility and minimize the impact.”

It took workers about 45 minutes to take the pipe out of service.

The AES Alamitos plan provides enough natural gas power to light about 2 million homes, according to company officials.

ALSO:

Lindsay Lohan must prove she's entered rehab

Bell trial: Jury's late notes throw verdicts into question, chaos

Victim in fake Rockefeller murder trial died from blows to head

-- Joseph Serna

Fate of controversial Northridge elder care project weighed

A Los Angeles city zoning administrator said he would continue to receive comments through Wednesday on a controversial 83,000-square-foot, three-story elder care project before making a decision on whether to approve the plan.

Associate zoning administrator Fernando Tovar said it would take at least another two weeks to review the “hundreds” of remarks he has so far received about the 162-bed home proposed for 2.3 acres at Parthenia Street and Shoshone Avenue in the Sherwood Forest community of southern Northridge.

The project has spawned fierce opposition from residents who argue that the structure would be incompatible with the surrounding neighborhood in terms of scale, size and architectural design. They worry about increased traffic and noise and reject the argument that there is a dearth of this type of senior housing in the community.

U.S. Army Corp's Sepulveda Basin plan on hold

Bird watchers angered by the destruction of 43 acres of a wildlife preserve at Sepulveda Basin got a promise from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday that it wouldn’t remove any more vegetation until at least mid-September.

Tomas Beauchamp, a corps spokesman, told the Los Angeles City Council that further work on the so-called South Reserve, south of Burbank Boulevard and north to the base of the dam, is on hold, in part because nesting birds have been discovered in the habitat.

The extra time will also permit corps officials to meet with stakeholder groups outraged by the destruction of willows, mule fat, coyote brush and elderberry trees in December. Beauchamp, however, stopped short of saying that no further work would be done.

"We’re committed to stopping that … until we come up with a plan that looking ahead ... meets our needs as well as the environmental community’s needs,’’ Beauchamp told the council.

L.A. DWP to be coal-free in 12 years under new plan

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will be coal-free within 12 years under a plan announced Tuesday.

Under the plan, the utility would sell off one coal-fired power plant in Arizona and grant approvals for a second plant in Utah to be converted to run on natural gas. Los Angeles gets nearly 40% of its energy from the two aging plants, which environmentalists complain produce the same level of emissions as 2 million cars.

Evan Gillespie, who has been leading a campaign to transition the utility to cleaner energy on behalf of the Sierra Club, said the DWP’s plan will be a road map for other utilities seeking to get off coal.

“There's no utility in the country going faster and further,” Gillespie said.

State law prohibits California utilities from signing new contracts with coal-burning power plants. That means the DWP’s energy portfolio would have been required to be coal-free by 2027, when the utility's contract with Utah’s Intermountain Power Agency is up.

Under the new plan, which the Board of Department of Water and Power Commissioners takes up Tuesday morning, the utility will be coal-free by 2025, when the Utah plant is expected to have completed a retrofit to use natural gas instead of coal.

That is well after the date set as a goal by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the outset of his second term. Shakeups in the leadership of the Department of Water and Power and the long-term contracts with the utility’s power plants have made that goal difficult to achieve.

ALSO:

After 13 years in prison, man found to be innocent could be freed

Testimony expected to begin in Rockefeller imposter's murder trial

AIDS group files complaint with county over unprotected sex in porn

--Kate Linthicum at Los Angeles City Hall

twitter.com/katelinthicum

EPA threatens to sue butane-storage facility in San Pedro

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Saturday that it has notified the owners of a 40-year-old San Pedro tank farm, which has up to 25 million gallons of highly flammable butane, that it is prepared to sue to ensure compliance with federal law.

The formal notification of potential federal enforcement against the San Pedro Terminal, owned by Plains LPG Services and operated by Rancho LPG Holdings, was based on an investigations of the facility, EPA officials said. The terminal, perched on a hill, is one of the largest and oldest aboveground fuel-storage facilities of its kind in the country.

“We are not aware of any previous state or federal enforcement action against the facility,” said Dan Meer, assistant director of the superfund division in EPA Region 9.

The owners of the storage facility were not immediately available for comment.

One of the EPA’s chief concerns is that the facility allegedly has not addressed the consequences of a loss of city water for fire suppression in the event of an earthquake, Meer said.

Neighbors and public officials have for decades complained that the collection of domed, 80-foot-tall tanks had the makings of a potential catastrophe.

“We are delighted with the EPA’s action,” said Janet Schaaf-Gunter of the San Pedro and Peninsula Homeowners United. “That facility is far more dangerous today than it ever was because it sits on a 40-year-old infrastructure.”

In 2011, Rancho LPG Holdings said its tanks were well-maintained and equipped with an array of safety measures, including monitors, sprinkler systems, automatic shut-off valves, and dikes to contain a gas spill.

They also noted that homes, built before the tanks, are located about 1,000 feet from the site.

Failure to comply with federal regulations could result in enforcement actions, including civil and administrative penalties of up to $37,500 per day of noncompliance, according to the notice sent to the facility Thursday.

ALSO:

Setting L.A. Times stories to song

L.A. Marathon officials warn of street closures Sunday

Fox executive homicide investigation progressing 'vigorously'

-- Louis Sahagun

Equestrian area in Aliso Canyon Park opens Saturday

The first public equestrian area in the northwest San Fernando Valley opens Saturday morning at Aliso Canyon Park in Porter Ranch.

The park's 69 acres of open space were acquired by the city of Los Angeles in 2005. In 2010, the city obtained grant money to make improvements, including restrooms, picnic tables, lighting and landscaping.

Equestrian amenities include trailer parking, a staging area, cross ties and an automated horse waterer. For pedestrians, there are walking paths with trail markers. The environment remains mostly natural, including a creek and meadows with California native plant species.

An opening ceremony was scheduled for 10 a.m. and includes remarks from Councilman Mitchell Englander and other city officials as well as a dressage demonstration by Ride On Therapeutic Horsemanship.

The park is north of the 118 Freeway, off Rinaldi Street east of Reseda Boulevard.

ALSO:

St. Patrick's Day weekend: DUI crackdowns on tap

‘Onion Field’ case is focus of LAPD Chief Beck’s ‘Southland’ cameo

Woman leaves grenade wrapped in sock at Costa Mesa fire station, police say

-- Cindy Chang

Photo credit: City of Los Angeles