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Part of Los Angeles’ Mulholland Drive that has been closed since early February due to storm damage is on track to reopen this month.
The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering, which is leading the repairs, anticipates that the road will be fully open by Memorial Day weekend, ending more than three months of detours for drivers around the canyon road that winds through the Hollywood Hills.
Mudslides in early February above and below the road closed a stretch between Skyline and Bowmont drives, just south of Fryman Canyon Park. The slides were among hundreds reported in Los Angeles during the record-setting winter storm that brought days of rain to Southern California.
The famous road named after William Mulholland, the civil engineer behind Los Angeles’ expansive water supply system and LA Aqueduct, opened in 1924. The main part of the road connects the Cahuenga Pass to the east and with the Sepulveda Pass to the west, providing expansive views of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley to the north and the LA basin to the south as drivers traverse the Hollywood Hills and the eastern Santa Monica Mountains. It connects residents to several neighborhoods and north-south canyon roads along the way.
It also is vulnerable to damage during winter storms.
“We have problems with just literally moving around down the street, trying to get to work, trying to get to school, trying to do grocery shopping,” Waltzman said. “These are impossible tasks. Once that begins, you essentially have to stay home.”
The storm delivered 7.03 inches of rain over two days, downtown LA’s highest two-day rainfall total in the month of February, which typically the region’s wettest month of the year. It was the third-wettest two-day total on record for downtown Los Angeles.