MALIBU—Several large boulders and piles of debris buried a portion of Yerba Buena Road on Sunday, March 31. It is expected to take at least a week to clear the debris and reopen the road to motorists. The road was not far from the location on Pacific Coast Highway that was already closed due to a sinkhole caused by heavy rains back in February.
This was the same sinkhole that consumed an excavating machine and a driver in February. The driver of the excavating machine was able to escape without sustaining any serious injuries. It took officials more than 24 hours to get the machine out of the massive sinkhole. The sinkhole is not expected to be repaired for at least another month.
Yerba Buena Road is used by hikers to access several hiking trails in the area. The official Twitter of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area tweeted on March 31 that, “Yerba Buena Road will remain closed until the end of the week due to the very large boulders now blocking it. The only way to reach the Circle X trails are via Deer Creek Road, to Pacific View Drive to Cotharin Road, which then goes to Yerba Buena Road.”
The recent Woolsey Fire, that burned 97,000 acres and 1,500 structures, enveloped Malibu and surrounding areas which have left the hillsides and mountains of Malibu particularly vulnerable to rockslides and mudslides due to the lack of vegetation and took the lives of three people. Recent rain storms that pelted the area have helped trigger rockslides and contributed to damaged roadways.
Canyon News reached out to the city of Malibu for comment, but did not hear back before print.
