By Alice Ollstein

The Santa Monica Public Library was the setting Wednesday for a workshop on the planned demolition and replacement of the iconic California Incline.

Prior to the meeting, people were encouraged to visit several information booths that were set up in the library courtyard. Many people stopped by the “environmental impact” and “design” stations, but the “traffic” table drew the largest and most vocal crowd.

Traffic consultant Bob Cheung used a map of the Westside to describe the steps that the City planned to take to relieve the traffic woes an out-of-commission Incline would cause. The steps included a “residents only” route to help Santa Monicans get around during the busy summer months, detours along Palisades Beach Road, strategically placed signs urging motorists to take the 10 Freeway to Pacific Coast Highway, traffic signal coordination and a visible police presence.

“It’s already gridlock on the PCH in the afternoons,” one man griped. “What will happen now?”

A representative from environmental consultants, Jones and Stokes, opened the workshop by explaining that its purpose was to introduce the project to the community and to create a forum for discussion, as the 45-day “comment period” on the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) will end in a few weeks.

The draft EIR was reviewed, residents’ opinions were solicited, and the epresentatives from Jones and Stokes, the traffic consultant, structural engineers and design experts all fielded questions.

The project, a joint venture of the City of Santa Monica, Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration, is slated to receive environmental clearance by summer’s end and get underway in 2009.

According to officials, the existing incline will be demolished, the “bridge section” will be replaced and brought up to current seismic standards and the incline will be rebuilt.

The impetus for what one Santa Monica resident called “an extensive and invasive production” was triggered by a deficient rating by Caltrans, which noted potholes on the south end of the incline, deep cracks at the north end, rust and a generally “dilapidated appearance.”

The reconstructed Incline will be 750 feet long and 50 feet wide, and will include a wider shoulder and sidewalk to improve pedestrian and bike access to the beach.

As the structure was damaged in the Sylmar and Northridge earthquakes, the plan calls for making the Incline earthquake-safe for the future.

“We want to update it on our standards, not Mother Nature’s,” one spokesman said.

Questions asked during the evening ranged from a Canyon resident who worried she would have to put up her own detour signs in the area to Council member Kevin McKeown who wondered about the purpose of the mysterious door halfway up the bluffs.

The people present raised diverse issues, such as the placement of materials and workers and the unstable bluffs, which are especially susceptible to mudslides during California’s rainy season. Some people asked for a seven-day work week in order to complete the project as quickly as possible. Other people suggested leaving one lane open during the day and only working at night. Some wondered, “Why not just fortify the existing structure?” Others hoped the new Incline would be a marked mprovement on the existing Incline.

The meeting closed with a request that the public submit comments and ideas, as now is the time for exploring options.