Moraga Ave in Piedmont reopens following closure due to mudslide

PIEDMONT, Calif. (KGO) -- A main road in Piedmont is finally back open after a mudslide shut down the area for the entire morning commute.

Public Works crews were able to clear Moraga Avenue of most of the mud and get the area reopened.

The closure was a headache for drivers all morning, with many Piedmont commuters relying on this road to get to Oakland.

The mudslide happened right around 5:30 a.m. on Moraga Avenue at Maxwelton Road.

The Public Works director says crews believe it was a private water service that had become disconnected from the East Bay MUD water pipeline outside of a home at the top of the hill.

This over-saturated ground eventually caused a landslide, forcing mud to spill out all over the road.

Crews were working for about five hours to clear the mud from the middle of the roadway because they say it was too slippery to drive on.

"It looks bad now, we have rain coming on Saturday and Sunday and so we're going to work with them to make those repairs as quickly as we can so we're in contact with the private resident at this point," said Piedmont Public Works Director Daniel Gonzales. "And there are some kind of tried and true things that can be done, we're going to work with them to get those in place."

Gonzales says crews are now focused on bringing equipment into regrade the hill where the landslide happened before putting some sort of fabric or covering on it, to make sure things don't get worse in the next storm coming Saturday.

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