The Antelope Valley Times

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Slide closes Vasquez Canyon Road

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Pavement is tearing as soil slides beneath Vasquez Canyon Road, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. [Image courtesy LA Co Public Works via twitter.]
Pavement is tearing as soil slides beneath Vasquez Canyon Road, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. [Image courtesy LA Co Public Works via twitter.]
Officials are warning area commuters that Vasquez Canyon Road is closed east of Bouquet Canyon due to a landslide that is uplifting and buckling a 150-foot stretch of roadway.

[Image courtesy LA Co Public Works via twitter.]
[Image courtesy LA Co Public Works via twitter.]
“Soil continues to move on the unstable slope, pushing up the roadway,” said Steven Frasher of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. “Cracks are active and continue to expand; the heave is continuing to rise in height to more than six feet.”

L.A. County Public Works engineers and geologists are investigating the cause, according to Frasher.

[Image courtesy LA Co Public Works via twitter.]
[Image courtesy LA Co Public Works via twitter.]
“There are no homes or buildings in the immediate area,” Frasher said. “Southern California Edison transmission and distribution poles along the roadway have also been affected and have since been de-energized as a precaution.”

Vasquez Canyon Road will be closed until further notice between Lost Creek Road and Vasquez Way, he said.

What Frasher called “deviation of the roadway” was first reported around noon Thursday and grew more pronounced throughout the afternoon.

Officials are recommending Sierra Highway as an alternate route.

[Information via news release from Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.]

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