Malibu Kills the PCH Roundabouts

The controversial project collapsed after the city learned its $2 million grant can’t fund a project designed to be removed.

August 11, 2026 · Malibu

The two roundabouts [planned for PCH](https://www.stringermalibu.com/article/roundabouts-coming-pch-malibu?from=edition-malibu) in western Malibu are dead. The City Council [voted unanimously](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baetGrRnfzk&t=4210s) last night to abandon the project, strike it from the city’s capital improvement program and seek reimbursement from Metro for the roughly $465,000 already spent on design.

The project unraveled over its funding. The roundabouts at Encinal Canyon and El Matador were pitched to the public as a temporary, removable experiment.

However staff discovered two months ago that the $2 million in Metro Measure M funds behind them cannot legally pay for a project intended to be removed. That left the council a choice: make the roundabouts effectively permanent, or pay for the “temporary” version out of the city’s general fund.

The price had also climbed from $2 million to an estimated $2.5 million. And the city’s own wildfire evacuation modeling, commissioned when the council [conditionally approved the project in March](https://www.radiomalibu.net/thu_mar_19/), found the roundabouts would add 14 minutes to a full evacuation of western Malibu during a power shutoff, on top of a nearly 17-hour baseline.

Thirteen speakers lined up against the project at Monday’s city council meeting, arguing the stretch has no documented speeding or collision problem to solve. Even one longtime local roundabout advocate withdrew his support from the podium.

Mayor Bruce Silverstein defended the project’s underlying purpose, arguing that narrowing PCH to one lane in each direction actually slows drivers. He floated relocating the experiment near Zuma, but didn’t seem to have any takers.

The concept may yet survive the vote: staff noted a separate roundabout at Busch Drive and PCH, [where construction was once slated to begin in early 2026](https://www.westsidecurrent.com/malibu-to-launch-1-2-million-pacific-coast-highway-roundabout-project-in-early-2026/article_a42fef93-c0ad-4a53-8209-dd497a2d4136.html), is expected to come before the council soon under a cooperative agreement with Caltrans.