NORTH LAKEPORT, Calif. – Following a nearly five-month closure, a portion of Hill Road East that had been blocked by a landslide has been cleared and is once again open to traffic.
Lake County Public Works crews and hired contractors started clearing the road earlier this week, completing the work on Thursday afternoon.
Public Works Deputy Director Lars Ewing had anticipated it would be open by 5 p.m. Thursday, but it actually opened a few hours earlier.
“Our guys were able to get it open ahead of schedule,” he said.
The county of Lake had closed the portion of road – near the entrance to Sutter Lakeside Hospital and the Lakeside Heights subdivision to Lakeshore Boulevard – at the start of December due to concerns about the stability of the hillside, as Lake County News has reported.
That same hillside had begun to shift and slide in March 2013, damaging or destroying several homes in the subdivision.
On Dec. 2, days ahead of a big storm, Lake County Public Works closed the road, concerned that the coming rains might cause further land movement.
Those concerns proved well founded, as the hillside – once saturated by the storm – spilled over the K-rail and into the middle of the road, eventually moving across it entirely.
In February, a Public Works crew had started clearing away tons of the soil, still thoroughly soggy from what little rain there was this winter.
At that point, officials wanted to keep the soil from reaching a small creek on the other side of the road.
Ewing said this was the earliest that the rest of the soil could be safely removed, explaining that they were waiting for the site to stabilize and the ground to dry out in order to avoid causing more of the hillside to come down.
“This work is being done because it's the best time to do it,” he said.
Separately, Ewing said Public Works is working on a permanent fix to protect the road, in the form of a gabion wall – which is a series of rock-filled baskets that allows for drainage – to support the hillside.
Because Hill Road East is classified as a “major collector,” Ewing said it qualifies for Federal Highway Administration funding.
A state emergency declaration Gov. Jerry Brown issued March 2 in response to the December storm also opened up the opportunity for emergency relief funding, Ewing said.
He said his agency is now putting together an application for those funds for the wall project, and is working with Caltrans and federal officials.
Late last year, in a discussion with the Board of Supervisors, Public Works Director Scott De Leon had reported submitting a notice to the state to pursue grant funding for the gabion wall, which at that time was estimated to cost $225,500.
However, Ewing said he couldn't confirm that would be the final price tag for the project.
“We have a ballpark figure but our concern right now is the emergency opening phase,” which is what the county now is in, he explained.
Once the department gets the go ahead from De Leon to do the design work, they'll pursue the project estimates, Ewing said.
Randall Fitzgerald, a homeowner in Lakeside Heights, told Lake County News that residents of the subdivision were glad that the road is finally open.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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