Officials Give updates on key road closures in Monterey County

MONTEREY COUNTY, CALIF. (KION-TV)- Central coast drivers are having to find new ways to get home or to work.

Blanco Road is shut down on both sides because of flooding according to Undersheriff of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Keith Boyd.

“Ultimately what happened was at about 10: 30 this morning, water was along the fog lines, blocking the road, and then within 20 minutes was covering both lanes,” Boyd said. “The decision was made at that time to close Blanco Road for vehicle traffic for the safety of the public.”

Highway 1 is also seeing fewer drivers because of flooding.

Drivers heading South were forced to exit because of closures from Saturday. Public Information Officer of Cal-Trans District Five Kevin Drabinski says reopening the section will depend on some factors.

“Well, we want to represent that the closure of Highway One will be an extended closure,” Drabinski said. “But our reopening is entirely dependent on the water receding. So the issue of the breach in the levee needs to be taken care of.”

Cal-Trans is urging drivers to not use Highway 1 as much. That's because there are trucks carrying equipment to help fix the levee breach.

Cal-Trans and Monterey County will also be monitoring the 68. Cal-Trans says they have trucks on standby if they need to close that road too.