Massive rockslide buries stretch of iconic California highway after soggy winter
More than 1 million tonnes of rock and dirt tumbled down a saturated slope in an area called Mud Creek
A massive rockslide has buried a stretch of California’s iconic seaside Highway 1 which had already been hit by a number of road closures caused by severe winter storms, state transportation officials said Tuesday.
The slide on one of America’s most picturesque highways took place on Saturday morning in a remote and largely uninhabited area known as Mud Creek.
The road in that section of the highway had already been shut down before a million tonnes of earth came tumbling down from a hillside, burying a 450-metre section of the highway, said Jim Shivers, a spokesman for the state’s transportation agency.
“We’re looking at a road closure of several months,” he said.
“This is a very, very big event... and it’s something that we really haven’t seen before. We have a lot of work to do.”
Watch: Rockslide buries stretch of California highway