Historic storms cause big trouble on roads

▸ On Jan. 11, Caltrans engineers became concerned about a dip in the westbound lane of Highway 92, just west of its intersection with upper Highway 35. A day later it cratered and the road has been closed entirely or open for one-way traffic ever since.

▸ On Monday, a boulder at least six feet across crashed down on Highway 1, just north of the Devil’s Slide Tunnels. For a time, traffic was diverted around the spectacle.

▸ There were many problems on the roads, particularly south of Half Moon Bay. On Stage Road between Pescadero and San Gregorio officials captured dramatic video of the road slipping down the hill. It is now closed indefinitely. Cloverdale Road in Pescadero was closed due to a mudslide. Pescadero Creek Road has been closed repeatedly due to flooding.

▸ A PG&E contract crew working to restore power to 52 customers in La Honda cut telecommunication lines on Sunday, severing AT&T, Verizon and Comcast connections to thousands of Coastsiders for hours. The services remained down for many around San Gregorio on Tuesday.

▸ Roads in Pacifica, some meant as alternates to the mayhem to the south, were not much better. A tree fell over Terra Nova Boulevard on Friday, blocking traffic. Signals along Highway 1, first at Linda Mar Boulevard and later at Crespi Drive, blinked out for long stretches over the weekend.

There was good news on the horizon. The National Weather Service is calling for light to moderate rain this afternoon and tonight, then, for the first time this year, there is little chance of rain in the forecast. Meteorologists are calling for mostly sunny skies and highs in the 50s through Sunday.

Good weather should help crews address problems created by a historic series of storms.

Work continues on Highway 92, where at print deadline there was one-way traffic control in place. A pilot truck was alternating traffic westbound and eastbound over the eastbound lane that hugs the cliff shoulder. While it was better than being closed entirely, some on the coast groused that Caltrans could do a better job managing the commute, letting more cars through when the backup snaked for miles behind the control points.

The decision to partially reopen the road took its own curves and dips. Late Friday, the city of Half Moon Bay was first to report that it would partially reopen on Monday. At the time, the plan was to allow eastbound traffic only. However, Caltrans initially denied any such plan and maintained the road would be closed until safe. Then without warning on Saturday night, the state transportation agency simply opened with one-way traffic control.

There was no word on Tuesday about the progress on a full reopening. Drivers bypassing the hole can see it has been squared off and partially filled as of Tuesday. It was unclear whether the state transportation agency plans to tackle erosion just to the north of the roadway or the underlying causes of the damage. An email sent to a Caltrans spokesman wasn’t returned in time for this story.

Infrastructure failures caught the attention of local lawmakers. State Sen. Josh Becker, Assemblyman Marc Berman and county Supervisor Ray Mueller issued a joint statement on Friday saying they were pressuring Caltrans to reopen Highway 92, at least one lane, as soon as it was safe to do so. One concern during the total closure was how emergency vehicles would get to and from the coast, which has few medical assets in place.

“Caltrans has assured me that they are working around the clock to reopen the road and inspect other roadways in the area for similar dangers," Berman said in the release. "I will do everything in my power to ensure that this remains a top Caltrans priority.”