Crews building temporary road for neighborhood isolated by massive landslide in Santa Cruz Mountains
LOS GATOS, Calif. (KGO) -- Construction is underway to build a temporary road over a landslide that has cut off or isolated residents in the Santa Cruz Mountains since February.
Los Gatos residents are still having to walk, climb or bike home over a massive landslide.
A permanent repair of Mountain Charlie Road is projected to take years. But on Wednesday, construction crews started to build a temporary road.
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We spoke to Los Gatos resident Debbie Robinson. "It will be a life-changer, honestly, like I can't even tell you when I said I was almost in tears... I was," Robinson said.
Residents could take an alternate route through Scotts Valley, but that adds at least an hour of commute time.
Robinson said the road is not ideal for new drivers like her daughter, Hailey. "There's a lot of narrow areas and blind corners and, as a new driver, that was my biggest worry was worrying about her," Robinson said.
Many choose to trek through the slide that dips 14-15 feet.
"Park over here, walk across every day in my business outfit and whatnot, and have my shoes in my hand," Robinson said.
At night, Hailey will get to the slide or be picked up from the slide by her parents using a golfcart.
RELATED: Massive landslide in Santa Cruz Mountains isolates community with years of repairs expected
"I feel like I have to be more scheduled about my day, like I have to wake up earlier to be able to like walk to the slide or do whatever I need to do to get to my car," Hailey said.
Hailey started her senior year of high school on Monday.
"It's harder to go hang out with my friends or have them come see me cause it's like my friends used to come hangout with me at my house, but now I don't really have that opportunity because parents don't want kids walking over this," Hailey said.
The county says the temporary road will connect one side of Mountain Charlie Road to the other. It will be 15 feet wide, and it will be a single-lane road.
Tiffany Martinez, Departmental Communications Officer with the County of Santa Cruz Community Development and Infrastructure, said the road will have limitations.
"We are looking into imposing a 5 mile per hour speed limit on this road with a limitation of a 5-ton load limit. We really view this road as being a road that's only meant to serve local residents and emergency personnel only," Martinez said.
Martinez said the road will have drainage and erosion control features to weather winters ahead.
As a safety precaution, Martinez said gates will be installed.
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"We are installing gates on each side of Mount Charlie Road in the event that there a weather emergency or a forecasted large storm event like we've seen in the past couple of winters that we feel may negatively impact the road," Martinez.
Recently, FEMA announced it needs Congress to restore funding for its disaster fund. It will only provide money to immediate needs. Santa Cruz County is awaiting roughly $140 million from disaster relief dating back to 2017.
Martinez said the department worked with District 5 Supervisor Bruce McPherson to secure the funding for the interim road.
"The best way to fund this temporary road would be to us the 2016 Measure D funds. We do expect this entire road repair to cost $500,000, but we think that this is a road that really needs to be prioritized," Martinez said.
We spoke with Emily Bieber, a mom of a preschooler and a third-grader who start school this week.
"We would've normally signed Adeline up for swimming and you know extra curriculars and we're not doing that. I can't handle like we just need to do the basics," Bieber said.
Construction for the fill-in road is expected to take 4-6 weeks.
Bieber is cautiously optimistic. "It's a mixed bag, you know, it's some positive progress. We've also gotten dark news about FEMA and the county so I'm just trying to think - one day at a time," Bieber said.
And she is not picky on what type of road gets installed in the near term.
"I'm ecstatic that there will be a temporary road. I mean we'll take dirt, we'll take gravel. I just need a road," Bieber said.
"I know that we can't have the full fix, but anything is better than having to deal with what we've had to deal with for the last six months," Robinson said.
