When I posted on Friday, October 7, I noted that southern Utah had received its first snowfall of the season. What I didn't mention is that it was a major winter storm with lots of moisture. Well, sometime during that night, State Highway 14 over Cedar Mountain was wiped out by a landslide. This is a very narrow part of the roadway going up the canyon where there has been evidence of slumping and sloughing before. In this picture, the highway enters at the bottom right corner, and exits towards the upper left in the shadow of the cliff. The big blob that fills the middle of the picture is earth and forest and mountain. It has relocated itself to where the highway used to be.As you might have guessed, State Highway 14 is currently closed. This is what the Utah Department of Transportation has to say about it: "Employees are working to address safety concerns and assess repair options." Um. Is that bureaucratese for "we-got-no-freaking-clue?" I'm no road engineer, so perhaps I am over-reacting, but when an entire mountain-side pushes half a mile of highway two hundred feet down the slope and into the river, is repair an option?
wow. UDOT should contact TDOT, they've had some experience with stabilizing slopes in recent years. Such as the Ocoee slide in 2009 http://flytenn.zenfolio.com/p1009597985/h3ebb7eb1#h3e8e607a
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that it would be expensive to build a bridge. But, it seems to me, that the place for the road would be on the inside of that river bend. Over the long-term, won't it be more expensive to maintain the road between the river and the slough? Even after the repair, the problem doesn't look like it is going away.
ReplyDeleteAlex Hoppus was telling me about this last week and exclaiming how happy he was he made that drive last year. I've never been down there.
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