Day: December 26, 2012

Highway closure update, and plans

From CalTrans this evening:

HIGHWAY 1 SOUTH OF BIG SUR TO REMAIN CLOSED OVERNIGHT AT PARTINGTON RIDGE ROAD DUE TO A ROCK SLIDE; ONE LANE TO OPEN TOMORROW, DEC. 27

MONTEREY COUNTY – Highway 1 remains CLOSED overnight a few miles south of Big Sur due to a major rock slide that occurred on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 23.

Caltrans has mobilized an emergency contractor to clear the large debris field and to repair a 60-foot section of the damaged roadway at Partington Ridge Road.

As a result, crews will open ONE LANE at 8 am, noon and 4 pm tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 27 to allow vehicular and bicycle traffic through the slide area, which remains a very active and dynamic repair/cleanup zone. So traffic flow will be strictly controlled during these times.

2d Partington Slide, 12/26/12

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These first two photos are CalTrans photos, this is what it looked like BEFORE RK got there. the next six are by Rock Knocker, and you can see the “after” of the first CT photo is number 6 in RK’s. (okay, CT photos not loading right away, so be back in a bit.)

This gives you an idea of what is going on …

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This shows what is on the verge on coming down, and helps to show why CT needs to keep this closed while they figure out how to deal with this.

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It takes a village to keep THIS ROAD open … And geologists, and engineers, and heavy equipment operators, and machines!

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All Photos by Rock Knocker

12/26/12 Road and Weather Conditions Updates

11 am – from our local CHP (in comments below):

“Hi Kate, This slide is at Partington Ridge Road. They don’t have an estimated time to open the road, they’ll know more in a few hours. NO ONE IS BEING ALLOWED THROUGH RIGHT NOW. NO ONE! They are putting equipment in place to get started.

Ben”
9:30 am – all local stations reporting Highway One closed, with no ETA for opening.

8:30 – that blue skies didn’t last long, up here, anyway.

7:30 am – blue skies – great news for CT. NWS continues scattered shower activity over most of the region.

Detail Information
6:51 AM 4 [10] 1039 ETAC OFCR CROSSON
6:45 AM 3 [7] SIG ALERT SENT
6:36 AM 2 [4] THERE IS NO ETA FOR OPENING AT THIS TIME
6:35 AM 1 [1] **HWY 1 IS CLOSED **

Unknown at this time whether this is the Partington Slide, or another, as Partington wasn’t being reported by CHP yesterday afternoon and evening. It is listed as 23 mm 1, which would be Lucia.

There were periods of extremely heavy rainfall here last night, beginning around six pm, so this could be anywhere. My rain gauge is showing just under an inch. Will update as I obtain more information.