Mudslide prompts traffic shutdown
Lake Hughes Road closed overnight for cleanup efforts
County crews worked through the night and into the early hours of Wednesday to remove about 200 cubic yards of mud, rocks and debris that swept across both lanes of Lake Hughes Road, prompting the shutdown of traffic in both directions.
“Last night, there was a rockslide on Lake Hughes Road, between Dry Gulch and Pine Canyon, that crossed both lanes of the road,” Kerjon Lee, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, said Wednesday morning.
“The road was closed overnight for cleanup efforts, and it was reopened this morning at 6 a.m.,” he said, noting that a cubic yard of mud is about the size of a typical washing machine.
A mudflow Monday on Vasquez Canyon
Road near Bouquet Canyon Road remains free of debris and mud after crews removed the material from the roadway, Public Works spokesman Steve Frasher said.
“We will be keeping an eye on the berm next to Vasquez,” he said Wednesday. “People may see our trucks during the day, but they are just carrying out a daily routine. Rocks may fall off hillsides but they are routinely checking.”
Also requiring mud removal was the Little Tujunga Road that winds through the Angeles National Forest.
“That road has remained closed ever since the storms in the middle of last week,” Frasher said. “We will continue to work on it the rest of this week.”
A check on roads within Santa Clarita city limits revealed no problems with mudslides.
However, some morning motorists discovered ice in the road, which can also be dangerous.
“The cold temperatures did lead to ice on Placerita Canyon Road,” she said. “We had several calls about the conditions and deployed message boards to notify drivers.”
The National Weather Service reported overnight temperatures Tuesday in the SCV reaching just a couple of degrees above freezing, and they’re forecasting the same for overnight Wednesday into this morning, anticipating temperatures of 35 degrees.