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After about three days of storm-related traffic restrictions that allowed only local residents on La Honda Road east of Skyline Boulevard, crews cleared a Feb. 7 mud and rock slide near Grandview Drive and one-way through traffic resumed at about 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, project Foreman Joel Duckworth of Granite Construction said.
Traffic at the site had been one-way since about Jan. 10, when storms caused a section of roadway to subside by about 9 inches. Crews had been working to stabilize the area in preparation for a retaining wall to buttress the slope below the subsidence.
This was one of a number of road closures in the area due to the storms.
Flag crews at either end of the damaged area have been directing traffic since the earlier storm, but traffic control will shift to temporary traffic signals as of about 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, Mr. Duckworth said. Two stoplights will go in at the Grandview Drive site, he said, and one at Friars Lane, another damaged area about a mile east.
At about 6 a.m. on Feb. 7, mud and rocks slid down and blocked the one open lane near the Grandview Drive site, Mr. Duckworth said. The area already damaged by subsidence also lost another 12 inches or so of support, he said. That section of roadway is now scarred with deep cracks that, in places, reveal the soil below.
On Feb. 9, a crew of foresters worked in the pouring rain, trimming overhanging branches above the slide to remove threats to traffic and electrical wires. The trimming went as planned and the trimmed branches came down without incident, Mr. Duckworth said. There have been no injuries at the site, he said.
The California Department of Transportation is planning a retaining wall to buttress the slope beneath the subsided area, but Mr. Duckworth said it’s probable that the site will also need a retaining wall to prevent slides from above.
The slope from which the mud and rock came is underlain by sandstone, porous to water and probably contributing to the slope’s and the roadbed’s instability, he said. Crews have been waiting for word from Caltrans on when to start work on the lower wall, he said.
Meanwhile at Friars Lane, a section of the road’s shoulder is so eroded that a vehicle traveling there at night could easily run off the road and descend 15 to 20 feet into mud deposited there from erosion by storm water runoff.
Bijan Sartipi, director of District 4 of the California Department of Transportation, said the road condition at Friars Lane is “good for now,” but that it will likely need a retaining wall to shore up the roadbed from below. But before any decisions, a geo-technical investigation will be necessary, he said.
Granite Construction, the outfit working on the wall at Grandview Drive, will probably be hired to do the work at Friars Lane as well, Mr. Sartipi said.
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