Mudslide prompts road closure near Pacific Coast Highway in Southern California

A mudslide earlier this week prompted the closure a nearly four-mile stretch of Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Southern California.

Authorities said the road between the Pacific Coast Highway and Grand View Drive would remain blocked until at least Sunday night, City News Service reported.

The mudslide occurred around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and was in the same general area as a mud flow that happened during rains last week, the report said.

“After last week’s slide, Caltrans installed several hundred feet of K-rail with fence on top for a total height of eight feet to catch mud and rocks,” officials with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) told the news service. “This morning’s slide occurred over a gully just outside the parameters of the K-rail in three separate locations within a span of approximately 1,000 feet.”

K-rail refers to concrete traffic barriers that are also known as Jersey barriers.

With more rain expected during the weekend, Caltrans is closing the road to clear roadblocks and “implement any necessary slide control” for the public’s safety, the report said.

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Caltrans told Fox 11 Los Angeles that this mudslide was also “dramatically heavier.”

"You can see from looking at it, it's kinda soupy ... but at the same time it has a lot more rocks in it, it has ash in it, it has all the debris," Caltrans’ Marc Bischoff said.

Wednesday’s mudslide was the third one on Topanga Canyon Boulevard since a January fire in the area, Caltrans said.

The “thick mud” trapped five cars early Thursday morning, Fox 11 reported.

“We had to call 911 to help us out ‘cause no one was doing anything, we just got stuck,” Jennifer Cruz, who was trapped in a vehicle, told the station.

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Crews used chains and bulldozers to pull cars out, while skip loaders, backhoes, dump trucks and sweepers were used to clear the roadway, the report said.

Caltrans also sent a geological engineer to inspect the area.