Marin County Mudslides Block Traffic on Highway 1

Heavy rain in the North Bay forced Caltrans to call in the heavy equipment

A pair of mud and rock slides on State Highway 1 temporarily blocked traffic Friday afternoon, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The CHP issued a Sig-alert at 12:52 p.m. following a mudslide on state Highway 1 north of Stinson Beach. The slide was reported around 12:05 p.m. A tree blocked one northbound lane of the highway and the CHP has called Caltrans for a front loader.

The Stinson Beach Fire Department was responding to cut the tree and remove it from the road.

Barclay said the CHP closed Highway 1 further north near Bolinas after a mudslide closed both lanes of the highway. Rock and mud were still falling around 2 p.m., Barclay said, but by 3:15 p.m. the road was reopened in both directions.

It’s been several days of mudslides in Marin County. Mud still covers half of Tennessee Valley Road, about a mile from the site of Friday’s mudslides. The road leads to Miwok Stables, home to 42 horses.

Ruben Camacho lives at the stable and looks after the horses. He said there is no way to get a horse trailer around a barricade that’s been setup in the event of an emergency.

“They say it can be two weeks, all the way to four to six weeks,” Camacho said.

Horse owner Debbie Premo says that’s bad news.

“The barricade is heavy and large and if a horse is ill or colicky or hurts itself, time is of the essence,” Premo said. “So waiting for someone to get here with a crane to move the barricade could be a life-threatening situation.”

The county department of public works responded with a statement, saying in part that it would do everything it can to arrange for deliveries in or out of the stable.

Just about a mile from Tennessee Valley Road, on Shoreline Highway at Palma Way, a small bridge over a creek is giving way. Joe Bencharsky is one of six homeowners that live on the other side of the bridge, which is their only way in or out of the neighborhood.

“You can see about 6 feet down there are large chucks of asphalt that have fallen into the creek,” Bencharsky said.

The rain is supposed to subside over the weekend, but another threat is looming: On Sunday and Monday a king tide is scheduled to roll into the bay and parts of Highway 101 could flood.

Bay City News contributed to this report.

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