Public Works

The great sewer wars of Malibu have finally drawn to a close. Sewers won. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board agreed late Thursday to ban septic systems in central and eastern Malibu, a move that would end years of fierce debate over the wastewater devices still commonly used in one of Southern California's most picturesque and exclusive coastal communities. New septic systems will not be permitted in Malibu and owners of existing systems will have to halt wastewater discharges within a decade.

The sensation is palpable, if not slightly remarkable. There you are hurtling southbound in the No. 3 lane on the Long Beach Freeway. Your car is rattling, your tailbone jumping to the rhythm of a concrete washboard abused by years of heavy trucks and piecemeal repairs. Then it happens, between the 105 and Rosecrans. You hit a bump, and suddenly your tires purr, your coffee settles in its cup and the radio reception seems more crisp. You may not know why -- it is the nature of freeways that we seldom consider their mechanics -- but you are now experiencing the I-710 Long Life Pavement Project, as Caltrans calls it. Begun in 2001 and scheduled for completion in the next five years, the transformation of one of Southern California's most neglected freeways is hardly an exercise in speed.

The director of Orange County Public Works announced his retirement this week after a scathing review of his planning department resulted in an official call for its overhaul. Bryan Speegle had worked for the county for more than 26 years. He became director of the public works department in January 2004 after serving as planning and development director. On Monday, he gave notice that he would retire. "He did not state his reason for his decision," said county spokesman Howard Sutter.

It is a six-mile stretch of guardrail near a manufactured lake in a desolate patch of the Oklahoma Panhandle. There's little reason for anyone to visit. Weeds are overgrown; the lake bed is virtually dry. Yet repairing the guardrail is on a list of projects developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to tap into President Obama's $787-billion economic stimulus program. The price tag: more than $1.1 million.

Fire swept a public works building Wednesday, sending towering flames into the night and drawing firefighters from throughout the region. A Pasadena Fire Department dispatcher received a report of an explosion at the 825 Mission Street City Yards building about 8:45 p.m. Dozens of emergency vehicles responded, with police cruisers and fire engines filling the mixed residential-business street near the 110 Freeway. The huge garage-like facility covering a city block is used to store, maintain and repair city vehicles and equipment, said Capt.

Two prominent governors, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pennsylvania's Edward G. Rendell, sent a memo to President Obama saying he needed to assert more political leadership instead of leaving it to Congress to draft a plan for improving the nation's aging highways, bridges and ports.

First Hollywood floated the plan. Now, Santa Monica is talking about adding open space by building over freeways. City officials in Santa Monica are exploring the idea of "capping" the 10 Freeway between 17th and 14th avenues as a way to add seven acres of land to the city and possibly create more open space. The City Council voted Tuesday night to authorize city staff to submit an application to the state for $250,000 in grant money to fund a feasibility study for the idea.

Once the shadowy and violent domain of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, Medellin has undergone a renaissance over the last decade due to enlightened civic policy and public works, offering government officials proof that urban decline can be reversed. Once one of the world's deadliest cities, Medellin's homicide rate has dropped by more than 90% since the mid-1990s.

Compared with the epic approach of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, President Obama's economic recovery strategy could be summed up as: Think small -- in a huge way. FDR left a legacy of engineering marvels that still adorn the landscape: the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state, and New York's LaGuardia Airport and Triborough Bridge among them.

Three months ago, Los Angeles' plan for a $3-billion solar energy installation seemed like it had come out of nowhere, with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and seven City Council members saying they needed to act quickly to get it on the March 3 ballot. With events moving so rapidly, Department of Water and Power General Manager H.