March 22, 2011 Road and Weather Status Reports

Big Sur River and the little waterfall, which is now a good=sized one!

Remember that sweet, hidden little waterfall I post photos of every so often? Well, look at it now.

10:00 am – below is a google map of the area of the slide.

Some of us are wondering (and some of us doing more than wondering, but investigating) whether or not a work around might be possible as a temporary solution until one lane can be opened for local traffic only. However, a vehicular road would require at least one stream crossing (I’ve heard as many as 3) – definitely something presenting a myriad of obstacles. Overcoming all the anticipated problems mike take longer than the estimate for the repair of Highway One.

9:30 am – just spoke with Collin Jones of Cal-Trans about the current status. He wants everyone to know, particularly our businesses and tourists, that they are doing everything they can to get this road opened as soon as possible, but that April 16th is still the best current estimate. They are concerned about getting the site secured, and will have that accomplished soon, he believes. Cal-Trans understands the desire to have a foot path open, but there are three reasons that is not feasible at the moment. The first is the instability of the road itself; second, are the heavy rains expected later today, Thursday, and Saturday; lastly, the contract has been awarded and large heavy equipment, including two very large tractor-trailers are on their way to the site shortly. It will be crucial for us to stay out of their way in order to get this problem fixed.

From NOAA: AS OF 9:10 AM PDT TUESDAY…RADAR IS INDC SHOWERS OFF THE COAST…A COUPLE OF THEM LOOK TO BE MODERATE OR BRIEFLY HEAVY…. MODELS BRING QUITE A BIT OF RAIN TO THE DISTRICT TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY…AS THE FRONT SEEMS TO BE SLOW MOVING. WINDS WILL BE GUSTY…BUT NOT EXPECTED TO REACH ADVISORY CRITERIA. REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE WINDS WILL REACH ADVISORY CRITERIA WITH THE SATURATED SOILS THERE WILL BE THE STRONG POSSIBILITY OF TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN DURING THIS SYSTEM. THE NAM12 IS INDC PRETTY UNSTABLE CONDITIONS WED AFTN ACROSS THE DISTRICT…SO WILL PROBABLY EXPAND THE THUNDERSTORM CHANCES WED AFTN…CONTINUING INTO THE EVENING HOURS. THERE ARE ALSO HYDRO CONCERNS WITH THIS SYSTEM…WILL CONSIDER WHETHER TO UPGRADE THE HYDROLOGIC OUTLOOK FOR THE AFTN PACKAGE…AFTER THE 12Z ECMWF COMES IN.

9:00 am – Back on for the day, busy gathering information. A mixture of blue sky and high and low clouds. Expecting rain later. If the clouds ever lift from Cone Peak, I will take a photo.

Still sifting through emails, reports, etc. but will bring everyone up-to-date when I am.