little cottonwood canyon mudslide
Little Cottonwood Canyon: After the massive mudslide that occurred in Little Cottonwood Canyon was cleaned up, the canyon was opened back up to the public. Following a significant amount of cleanup at the location where the slide occurred the previous day, State Route 210 reopened to traffic just after 3 o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday. According to John Gleason, who works for the Utah Department of Transportation, the slide had a width of one hundred feet and a depth of four feet.
“It was a massive slide,” Gleason said in an interview with KUTV 2News. “When you hear the word mudslide, the first thing that comes to mind is probably something flowing and gentle. When it dries, this will be extremely dense and brittle, almost exactly like concrete. Gleason had the following response when asked if there is anything that UDOT can do to stop similar slides from happening in the future: “We’re doing everything that we can in terms of clearing out the culverts and making sure that the water has somewhere to go.
” Having said that, there is only so much that can be done when you have a mudslide of this magnitude, and at that point, the priority shifts to responding as quickly as possible and clearing the road. Before the slide occurred on Tuesday morning, UDOT had already closed the canyon for avalanche control, so there were no cars in the area. According to Gleason, the most important thing to do during this wet runoff season is to try to anticipate difficulties.
Hardy Sherwood got on his bicycle and headed out for a ride on Wednesday afternoon, just below the canyon’s opening. “Just a short ride up,” he replied, “mostly checking out whether my bike is still working after having a winter siesta.” “Just a short ride up.” Sherwood stated that he believes the infrastructure of the canyon might be improved, but that problems like these are unavoidable because of the increased amount of water and the warmer temperature.
“We should be happy we don’t have any more mudslides,” he remarked. When asked if motorists who were already in the canyon should be concerned for their safety, Gleason responded that staff will continue to be diligent in checking circumstances and would re-close the canyon if it was necessary to do so. He remarked, “We’re not going to open the canyon until we’re confident that it’s safe, and that won’t be until we’re absolutely sure.”
