A mudslide created a break on Redwood Boulevard, along the freeway in Novato on Tuesday, March 21. A few days later on March 25, Southbound US 101 had to be closed to prevent further gas or water damage from Petaluma to Novato. It was reopened at about 1:30 p.m. the next day, according to the Marin County Sheriff.
Marin County Officials said this mudslide uncovered one of two PG&E gas main lines possibly creating pressure on a North Marin Water District aqueduct, which runs from Sonoma County to Marin County. Operating pressure was reduced because PG&E reported that they couldn’t visually assess the potential impact of the slide on the buried pipeline.
According to Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber, “multiple agencies had to work together with PG&E to stabilize the hillside as much as possible to avert any additional damage to gas and water infrastructure.”
Faculty members and students commuting to campus were impacted by the closure of it.
SSU biology major Noémi Jackovicks lives on campus but commutes to Marin to see her family. She found the break “inconvenient and unfortunate for something like the weather to cause this but California had record rainfall this year so it makes sense. The roads are not ready to drain and handle flooding or a storm properly.”
Sonoma State communication professor, Gina Baleria commutes to campus from San Francisco, and stated that she “felt sorry when she saw the damage and destruction.”
A week after the incident, PG&E continued to manage the damages on Redwood Boulevard because “even under the dry conditions, the hill is moving. The landslide is moving. We further anticipate more land movement is very possible and anticipated,” said PG&E.
Katie O’Brien, the international student school advisor at SSU was also not surprised to see this incident with the current ground saturation. She also mentioned having a geology background and studied how to identify landslides, and potential landslide markers. For her “there are plenty of local hills that currently have those markers.”
“Right now, there’s no vehicle access. There’s not going to be any access along the bike path or the road until this gets repaired,” said Chief Park Ranger Vince Anibale.
PG&E says its engineers will have to wait until all the seasonal rain is over before they can conduct a thorough investigation and come up with a more permanent solution over the next coming months.
