Month: December 2014

Highway One Closure Overnight

Today’s Date: Friday, December 12, 2014 @ 6:30 pm
District: 5 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San
Benito Counties
Contact: Susana Z Cruz (Bilingual) or Colin Jones
Phone: (805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3189
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HIGHWAY 1 CARMEL TO CAMBRIA UPDATE #2 —
FULL CLOSURE FROM RAGGED POINT TO GORDA

MONTEREY COUNTY — A 10-mile section of Highway 1 will remain closed overnight through Saturday morning, Dec. 13 in both directions from north of Ragged Point at the San Luis Obispo/Monterey County line to Gorda (Mile Marker 10) in Monterey County, 35 miles south of Big Sur due to rock and mudslide activity.

Caltrans will evaluate conditions of the roadway which is still an active/unstable slide area with intermittent wet weather continuing and will provide roadway updates as the situation develops. Any overnight travel along the coast highway is NOT advised unless absolutely necessary.

All businesses on either side of the closure in Big Sur/Ragged Point are open and accessible via Highways 1, 46, 68 and/or 101.

Caltrans reminds motorists to move over and slow down when driving through highway construction zones.

For more information regarding projects on the Central Coast, you may call the toll-free hotline at (888) 836-0866 or visit http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist05/projects/. The public may also call the statewide CHIN at (800) 427-7623 for updates on current traffic conditions.

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Jim Shivers
Caltrans District 5
Public Information Officer
(805) 549-3237
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PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND THOUGHTS BY BIGSURKATE:

On Wednesday, the road was closed overnight due to a slide in the Alder Creek Area. This area is notoriously unstable. The photos Cal Trans sent out, while not identified, look to be this area. Many of you will remember a slide at Alder Creek that I covered in my blog that closed the highway at that location for a month in May of 2011. There is a search box to the right, just above categories, where one can enter Alder Creek and see the reports and some amazing photos of that slide. There was another one in March of 2010. Again, one can find it with the search function on my blog.

Given that rain is expected throughout the month, the next one Sunday night into mid-week, I don’t think we have heard the last of slides in this area. Might even be new slides added.

Please, do not drive this portion of Highway One at night. There is a reason Cal Trans doesn’t work at night. It is dangerous. The two vehicles stuck in the slide at Big Creek last night, and the one that got away severely damaged, are a testament to the danger of doing so.

Slide Photos

Here is one from Cal Trans. Look on the far right, center, and one can see a bit of the double yellow line.

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Storm Update & Road Closure

3 pm – per Cal-Trans Highway One will be closed from Gorda south to Ragged Point from 5 pm tonight until tomorrow morning.

Noon Update from Cal Trans:

We are working hard towards re-opening the highway. At this time we are in the process of slide clean up and removal throughout the entire area. As it stands right now the highway is accessible to emergency vehicles only and we are hoping to re-open later this afternoon.

Current closure is from Esalen on the north and Ragged point on the south.

Greg DeAlba Jr.
Supervisor
Willow Springs Maintenance
(805) 459-7461 Cell
(805) 927-4243 Office
(805) 927-3493 Fax
EMERGENCY Satellite 888-254-5775

SIG ALERT — Highway 1 is closed from Ragged Point in north coastal San Luis Obispo County (Mile Marker 72) to the Coast Gallery in Monterey County (Mile Marker 42) due to multiple rock/mud slides. Crews are on site assessing damage and initiating cleanup. Alternate routes into Big Sur and Ragged Point are Highways 68, 101 and 46.

There is no estimated time of opening.

Stay tuned for updates as conditions develop.

7:30 am – This is the slide I wrote about last night at Big Creek and of which I have a few pictures. One is down below, and those of the damaged car that escaped is coming. Note the road is closed at least until mid day. Two vehicles got stuck in the slide and a third made it to Lucia with major damage, including a missing drivers side window with rocks coming into the back seat. Pics not loading. I’ll add later.

Detail Information
7:25 AM 10 [16] VEHS AT BIG CREEK
7:23 AM 9 [15] [Notification] [CHP]-CTRANS INQ IF ANYONE 28 SR1/BIG CREEK 2 VEH’S 1124 STUCK IN SLIDES, CTRANS NEEDS VEH’S REMOVED SO THEY CAN CLEAR RDWY / BLK TOYT AND GRY FORD ESCAPE BOTH 1124
5:47 AM 8 [14] PER CTRANS – WILL BE CLOSED AT MIN THRU MID DAY
10:04 PM 7 [13] 1039 ENTAC
10:01 PM 6 [12] [Notification] [CHP]-CALTRANS RECALLED WITH UPDATED INFO – SR1 CLOSED BTWN MM 10.1 TO MM 42
9:37 PM 5 [5] AT BIXBY BRIDGE MM 28.09 TO FALLERS PT MM 42.15
9:36 PM 4 [4] PER CALTRANS PUBLIC AFFAIRS – RDWY CLOSED ON SR1
9:30 PM 3 [3] SIG ALERT SENT
9:29 PM 2 [2] SB 1 IS NOW CLOSED AT MPM 48
9:29 PM 1 [1] NB 1 IS NOW CLOSED AT MPM 10
Unit Information
9:29 PM 2 Unit Assigned
9:29 PM 1 Unit At Scene

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All photos by Brendon Shave.

Storm Reports

10:30 pm – Cal Trans confirms … A hard closure at Fullers and at Willow Springs Station. They will be out at first light to start the clean up..

8:30 pm – slide at Big Creek. Several cars damaged by rocks and left where they were. Son sent photos, will try to load below.

7:30 pm – lots happening, but most important is flash flood warning for South Coast, including Gorda. There goes the road. Sycamore Canyon is closed due to mud slides. Lots of closures thru out our county. I’ve had 65 mph winds, and .60″ in 20 mins, and it continues to pour. Still without power. Tweeting more than blogging. Follow me @bigsurkate.

4:00 – lost power. Cover for back-up generator blew away. Couldn’t get it started in the rain. I will be going offline for the rest of the afternoon and evening to conserve battery power on my iPad. Have 1/2″ of rain, and biggest gusts have been 54 mph. Be safe, And take care of one another. I’ll check -in in the am.

Noon – the radar at the bottom from NWS taken about 1/2 hour ago. Sorry, but I can’t get the visuals to insert anywhere but the bottom on a mobile device! Winds up to 54.

Also note, Bryan Flores of Dave Potter’s Office says his office is ready to help anyone down here with storm related problems. His number is 647-7755.

11 am – winds just hit 52 mph Chews Ridge reports 55, can’t keep up with flooding, road closures, and power outages in Santa Cruz and Bay Area. A few county roads in Monterey closed -Peter Pan in Highlands and Prunedale Rd. In north County due to downed trees.

10 am – road clear to Carmel. Reports of major winds and rain in Santa Cruz, and Highway 280 south of SF completely flooded – ALL lanes. See photo below captured from Twitter.

7:30 am – strongest wind, so far, has been 40 mph, but then the storm front is not expected here until later this afternoon. Right now, the only traffic hazard I see on the CHP website is a tree blocking the north bound lane, just south of Pt. Lobos. I will keep an eye on that site throughout the day, but you should also. Keep us all posted about what is going on where you are in the comments below. Make sure to include the time and location. Thanks, and BE SAFEeveryone!

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Warnings and Watches

By now, the whole state is aware this big storm is coming, so I won’t belabor the point, but be aware and pay particular attention to weather watches and warnings, prepare, and I will be getting ready myself for tomorrow, and watching the storm come in from my Plaskett Perch.

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Weather Links

I am going to add a couple weather links to my blog to the right, under 2014-2015 El Niño, but before I do, I wanted to share them here, for those who want to try them out and/or bookmark them.

The first is a California weather blog that is really good by a Stanford graduate. For the first time in reading the current article, I understand (sorta) how they can predict the winds.

The California Weather Blog

And here is one to the California River Forecast Center, to keep appraised of the rising rivers in the State. Hopefully they will continue to rise after this upcoming heavy-duty storm, but not so much that they take out Bridges as happened in … 1995? With the Carmel River Bridge. I may have forgotten the year, but I will never forget the experience. I, some high schoolers, and a couple of chaperones could not get home.

Cslifornia River Forecast Center

Do you have a favorite weather link to share? Please do so in the comments section below.

Bridge Opened

As Lisa pointed out in the comment section of my initial post on this, due to numerous calls to numerous people and agencies, the bridge on Ft H-L over San Antonio River has been opened to all but trucks over a certain limit. Thank you all
for calling in. I’ve been too busy to do so.

Nacimiento-Fergusson may not be an option

In your preparations for mudslides on Highway One, particularly if we get one in both directions, a reminder (as Peter reminded me) that the main bridge on Ft. Hunter Liggett has been closed for a year. The detour is a river crossing over San Antonio River (I mistakenly put Nacimiento, until XT pointed out my error) which, while things have been dry, has been a good option. If the river gets too full or fast flowing, the base will close down that option, and even if they don’t, it could easily get too dangerous for most vehicles to cross. We have never been closed off in all 3 directions at the same time in my memory, or at least for more than a day or two. Keep that in mind while you make your preparations for the rest of Decembers storms. As NOAA NWS keeps saying, the storm door is open! Hope for the best, and plan for the worst, as the idiom states.