The following four photos were sent to me by Partington Ridge resident Jim Merz. Excellent photos, and clearly show the instability, and the massive nature of the slide.
The following two photos are provided by Mike Gilson, and show Highway One level damage.
And here is one from Magnus Toren that shows what none of the others show – the top of the slide, which demonstrates, as Rock Knocker says, “It ain’t done, yet!”
And from North Coast CT crew, Brandie Kirby, another couple:
And finally, one last photo from Greg DeAlba, Supervisor, Willow Springs Maintenance Station:
CALTRANS PRESS RELEASE
Today’s Date: Monday, December 24, 2012 at 5 pm
District: 05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties
Contact: Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones
Phone: (805) 549-3138 or 549-3189
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
*Update #2*
HIGHWAY 1 SOUTH OF BIG SUR IS CLOSED AT PARTINGTON RIDGE ROAD DUE TO A ROCK SLIDE; ROADWAY OPEN AT RAGGED POINT
MONTEREY COUNTY – Highway 1 will remain CLOSED overnight and Christmas Day a few miles south of Big Sur due to a major rock slide that occurred on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 23.
Caltrans is mobilizing an emergency contractor to clear the large debris field and to repair a 60-foot section of the damaged roadway at Partington Ridge Road.
The highway is shut down just south of Deetjens Big Sur Inn (Mile Marker 42) and at Lucia (Mile Marker 23). There is no official estimated time of opening but we are working to have one lane available to traffic later this week.
The rock slide south of Gorda at Mile Marker 7 was cleared at noon today so there is NO closure at Ragged Point in SLO County.
4:50 PM 14 [41] PER STEVE/CALTRANS MM 38 STILL CLOSED DUE TO LARGE ROCKS/BOULDERS ON RDWY [Shared]
11:00 am -Rock Knocker just saw a whole convoy of CalTrans vehicles heading north to Partington.
10:30 AM 52 [136] A27-014 150 DMG”D RDWY BOTH LNS , HOLES THROUGH OUT , BOULDERS LRGR THAN SUVS [Shared]
9:54 am – From my son, who needed to go north, this report:
“road is closed for the day, holes in road, rocks as big as cars, partington ridge road fell onto Hwy 1, going over NF, love you bye”
9:53 AM 42 [122] [Notification] [CHP]-CT SPOKE WITH DIST MNGR WILL TRY TO OPEN F/RAGGED PT TO WILLOW SPRINGS TO GET TRAFFIC FLOWING AROUND 1200 HRS WILL TRY TO DO THEIR BEST BUT MM 38.5 WILL POSS NOT BE OPEN TODAY [Shared]
9:44 AM 41 [119] [Notification] [CHP]-PER CALTRANS MM 38.5 AT THE BIG SUR AREA WILL BE CLOSED MOST OF THE DAY 1023”G FOR THE GEOLOGIST TO CHECK IF AREA IS STABLE [Shared]
9:00 am – here is the slide just south of Alder Creek. Photo by John Handy, of Treebones Resort. I will get it uploaded as soon as possible. The other slide is at Partington Rd. it has large, truck-sized boulders, so will take a while to clear. Hopefully, I will have a photo of that to upload later.
6:30 am – the Cal Trans crews should be rolling out just about now, probably in both directions to assess the damage, and hopefully clearing what they can. I wouldn’t expect a report from them for at least an hour, maybe two.
After midnight sometime, a reader reported VW sized boulders near the bottom of Partington Ridge Rd. , which is 15 miles north of Lucia. Whether this is the same, or a different one than reported as being just North of Lucia at MP 23, is anyone’s guess. CHP website reported this:
4:43 AM 38 [104] [Appended, 05:20:44] [1] LGE VEH SIZE BOULDERS IN RDWY [Shared]
I will update this post throughout the day as information becomes available.
