Unstable road conditions close Soquel-San Jose Road

UPDATE 2/14/17 11:48 a.m.: Santa Cruz County Public Works wants to remind the public that Soquel-San Jose Road has a hard closure at mile marker 5.91.

On Monday, the road was closed indefinitely south of Amaya Ridge to north of Olsen Road.

A hard closure means all vehicles, including residents and commuter traffic cannot drive through the closure.

The county said access is still being give to emergency vehicles to serve residents in the area. Everyone is being asked to obey road closure signs, as crews work to repair weather-related damage as soon as possible.

UPDATE 02/13/17 10:44 p.m.: Wearing an orange shirt and black overalls, many drivers mistook Robert Brown for a county worker and stopped to ask whether they could drive through the road closure signs at Soquel- San Jose Road.

“There is a stop sign a little further down. I mean, quite a few cars have gone through, and they haven’t come back,” Brown said to one driver.

Still, some turned around.

Brown lives off Soquel-San Jose Road and says on Thursday, there was just a crack on the ground.

“I was probably more scared Friday when I got home and noticed the whole road has sunken eight inches,” Brown said. “It just keeps on growing six to eight inches every night. ”

Now that crack is 20 feet long and in some places 18 inches deep. On Monday morning, Santa Cruz County geologists said the road is unsafe for drivers.

“This storm has been of historic proportions. We haven’t seen this kind of road damage in over 35 years,” said First District supervisor John Leopold.

With on-and-off closures of Highway 17, many have been taking these mountain roads, and Soquel-San Jose Road was even dubbed “mini Highway 17”.

“Not only do thousands of people live in the area, but people do use it as a part of their commute route,” Leopold said. “Especially on their way home, there (are) 10,000 people probably (who) use it as a commute route.”

More commuters are making the road deteriorate even faster, and with more rain expected, county officials have to wait longer to fix it.

“Since it’s such a major road in the mountains, we can’t take a chance on doing something quick. We have to do something right,” Leopold said.

PREVIOUS STORY: One of the few roads available to navigate from Santa Cruz County into the Bay Area is closing Monday afternoon due to ongoing weather-related damage.

At about 3:40 p.m., Santa Cruz County Public Works said Soquel-San Jose Road will be indefinitely closed south of Amaya Ridge to north of Olsen Road.

County geologists recommended the closure due to an unstable road bed near that location.

Drivers are encouraged to use Highway 17, which has one lane open for southbound and northbound traffic. However, a mudslide is still covering the northbound side, slowing down travel times on the highway.

County officials are also encouraging drivers to use Highway 92 or Highway 129 as an alternative.

For now, the county says it will conduct an analysis of the road before designing a plan to repair it. There isn’t a plan to re-open the road at this time and no detours are available.

Highland Way is also closed between PM 3.06 and Spanish Ranch Road. because of a mudslide.