[UPDATE 1:57 p.m.] Comprehensive Look at the Roads: Watch for Ice, Multiple Crashes
An overturned semi has closed 101 north of Leggett. [Photo by Jonathan Beck]
Here’s what we know about the major roadways (Updates are in green):
- Hwy 1: Open
- Hwy 3: Open
- Hwy 20: Open with several accidents
Hwy 20 is icy. [Caltrans traffic cam. See the most recent photos here]
- Hwy 36: Chains Required from Mad River to Forest Glen.
- Hwy 96: Open
- Hwy 101: 101 north of Leggett is closed with no estimated time of reopening due to an overturned gas tanker. Click the link to go to more information.
- HWY 162: Open
- Hwy 169: Open
- Hwy 199: Open.
Hwy 199 is snowy. [Photo from Caltrans Traffic Cam]
- Hwy 211: Open
- Hwy 254 (Avenue of the Giants): Open
- Hwy 255: Open
- Hwy 271: Open
- Hwy 299: Carry chains and use caution.
Caltrans sand truck working to keep 299 open. [Image from Caltrans traffic cam]
Here’s What We Know About Humboldt County Roads:
Humboldt County Public Works reports on the following county roads: (We will also add local reports on conditions.
- Bair Road between Redwood Valley and Hoopa is closed due to heavy snow.
- Bald Hills Road – carry chains
- Bear River Ridge – carry chains
- Brannon Mountain Road, P.M. 3.0 closed due to downed utility lines and trees.
- Butler Valley Road is closed due to downed utility lines and trees.
- Horse Mountain Road – carry chains
- Mattole Road Bull Creek – carry chains
- Mattole Road, Wildcat – carry chains
- Shelter Cove Road–Cheryl Antony, Shelter Cove Fire spokesperson, reports that the road is sanded but will “probably refreeze tonight.” Please drive with caution.
- Titlow Hill Road had 3 inches of new snow over night – carry chains
- Wilder Ridge Road – carry chains
![[Graphic from the National Weather Service]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/51263744_2284392711605907_543661268179877888_n.jpg)
[Graphic from the National Weather Service]
Hello everyone, please help us out by getting the word out to drive extra safe this morning. The roads are icy and this has caused a number of crashes overnight and this morning. Please consider the following:
- Prepare your vehicle early (warm up, de-ice windows).
- Leave for work/school early, giving you time to drive slow and get to your destination safely.
- Begin your stop by slowing early, preventing your vehicle from sliding.
- If you find yourself driving on ice and begin to slide, remain calm, take your foot off the accelerator and do not hit the brakes or make any sudden movements with the steering wheel.
- BE AWARE OF EMERGENCY VEHICLES ON THE SHOULDER!!!
The California Highway Patrol will be out there responding to calls as quickly as we can, however, there may be a delay in getting to you. If you are involved in a crash, and no one is injured, safely move all vehicles to the right shoulder or to a safe location off the freeway, and then call dispatch.
Thank you all for your help in spreading the information necessary to help keep our community safe!
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
?Thank you Kym for the info, and we will.
Happy to see traffic now moving at Peg House
They need to lay salt during these weather conditions. isn’t that a standard practice for icey roads. Everyone knew there was snow, hail, low temperatures & icey roads, why wasn’t salt laid.
Salt kills plants and animals. We don’t use it for a reason.
And this is better? How many accidents in the past 2days… using salt for the few days to prevent accidents isn’t going to cause plants & animals to die. That’d be prolonged use.
unfortunately, even with salt, if folks don’t know how to drive on icy/snowy roads, accidents are going to happen, just like this. I grew up in a place where snow and icy roads are common for a good portion of the year and regardless of salt, people drive like fools and crash.
4wd, awd, and salt don’t make up for careless driving. it really blows my mind watching trucks haul mach in these conditions.
Slow ride, take it easy.
Living on the Coast, close to the ocean rust vehicles & a few days of salt on the roads isn’t going to kill a car, animals or plants. Our freezing temperatures are brief and not prolonged.
Quick google search shows three majors concerns with road salt. A) it usually contains toxic additives like sodium ferrocyanide and sodium hexacyanoferrate. B) It raises the salinity of water bodies and C) it contains natural and toxic impurities like lead, cadmium and chromium.
Some areas that use it regularly have contaminated ground and surface water.
Not a good idea.
They use sand here ..CALTRANS has only a limited number of sand trucks…..
They need to get more sand trucks or do something far more effective! Make it a priority & there should be zero excuse. The number of accidents the past few days and every time there’s drastic weather & cold temperatures is proof of an issue. There seems to be plenty of funding, support and effort for busting pot growers but minimal effort & funding for preventing accidents. At least have public service announcements, all the radio stations, news & road-side signs tell ppl to at least slow down.
they spent all the money making it hard for homeless people to sleep under the overpasses.
I like sand better than salt. Get more sand trucks. Black sand would absorb heat when the sun comes out.
Salt definitely eats your rig over time. Gets into the water.
Salt would be a good idea at times like this. Yes it has environmental consequences, and rusts the hell out of your vehicles, if not washed off, but people are crashing left and right; it would have been a good solution.
Not if you want living things in the forest or water, salt is def not a good solution.
Slowing down and being a safe driver is a way better option. Why should other things have to suffer and die because we somehow think we have the right to be irresponsible?
Sounds like the 101 maybe closed up to 10 to 12 hours
Does anyone know how Bells Springs road is
If by growdozer you mean an a vehicle that will be able to save your ass when your shitty car gets stuck, then you’ve dated yourself-new school hater fool is what you be-
grow dozer in action:
https://kymkemp.com/2018/10/07/humboldt-county-sheriffs-instagram-features-new-method-of-eradicating-cannabis/#comment-635077
They probably meant “oversized Tonka truck piloted by undersized Duke Boy.”
Red pumice is what CalTrans seems to be using out on Hwy 299. It works very well when people slow down and leave more following space ahead of them to the next vehicle. However, I don’t expect everyone to slow down out there. It only takes one driver to cause a multi-car accident. Defensive driving everyone, or stay off the road.
Drove through a white out yesterday, with difficult conditions from Willow Creek to the Blue Lake weigh station. Only slipped once, before going in to four wheel drive. Passed numerous vehicles that had slipped off the road, and almost got clobbered by some a** that was following me one car length behind. Was going to stop to check a woman that slipped off ahead of me, but the a** locked up behind me and was going to rear end me, so I went around her (I could see she was not injured). The a** slipped off the road and just missed her. This was from about 11:30 to 12:15. Going back at 2:00 the roads were fine.
Good job with the plows CalTrans.
I do expect everyone to slow down out there. Hey, California, SLOW DOWN in a storm. Try it! If there is a white-out or driving rain, consider postponing your trip. If snow and mud is on the road, try 4-wheel drive before you start sliding.
Yeah that was one sockdolager of a white-out. To all the people who decided that stopping in the middle of the driving lane to install your tire chains was a good idea PLEASE NEVER DO THAT AGAIN! As a matter of fact just stay home on snow days so those of us with common sense can live to see tomorrow.
This is such a good article!
They should consider making a billboard out some of this information and consider placing it every 5 miles, in populated areas; it wouldn’t cost much.
People from out of the area don’t know this.
Yes CHP please start ticketing for tailgating esp in bad weather!!
As john is describing, you often cannot even safely slow to pull over when theyre on your ass like that, i hope the a-hole behind john had to sit there for a good while. Sorry but without some kind of uncomfortable outcome people dont learn.
PLEASE DONT try any way around the 101 closure that gps might tell you to take besides the 5 hour I5 drive. You will end up in a bad situation and resources are stretched thin. No joke. None of those backroads it tells you to take are really drivable even in summer, some are closed. Bell Springs will have snow&ice.
Get some cafe at the peg house. Chill out. Theres nothing you can do about it for now. The park/campground across from peg house is beautiful.
The storys been told over&over, the turtle and the hare. Rushing often gets you there last. Slow&steady.
Icy,
thanks the tailgaters are terrible,
it’s like they want to die or something.
I usually pull over when I can, but when someone’s being a jerk… just slow down even more till they get off yr a**. The more they rev the more I slow down. It can be very entertaining 😀
Would this truck not have been able to travel either a day or two before or after all this ice/snow?
Make good choices…simple as that.
Yes! Decide well! If the Force is against you, dial back.
Or call Yoda.
How’s the 36 coming from the 101 direction towards dinsmore?? I bet the huge construction area is a slippery nightmare
Just a bad corner, gets a couple of trucks a year, ice or no ice, i would like to thank the engineers at Caltrans that designed this part of 101, complete failure and a big disappointment, not sure I’d call oneself an engineer after building such an abomination
~pretty sure the actual work is sub contracted out (?). Like PG&E sub-contracted with many know-nots to trespass on private property, without our consent, installing God-forsaken “SMART” meters. I believe this is the reason many of them exploded, caught fire, due to shoddy workmanship.
sub contractors build it the way Caltrans designed and engineered it.
~i remember a time in Santa Rosa when subcontractors were hired to do a walk-way overpass on Hwy. 12 in the Roseland area. Long story short, the beginning part was placing pillars . . . four, if i remember correct, were in the wrong spot. The subs skipped town with the moola.
I would think it would come down to inspectors of the project. Some type of over sight!
Yup. Caltrans went to a lot of expense to make that tip-over corner.