Slide closes Kachemak Drive at Spit end

Published 8:50 pm Sunday, April 19, 2015

A collapse of the bluff along the west end of Kachemak Drive has closed the Homer Spit end of the road. The road is closed indefinitely from about a half-mile in from the Homer Spit Road to the top of the hill by the old airport. Kachemak Drive remains open from the other entrance by East End Road all the way to the airport. The Spit Trail parking lot on Kachemak Drie remains open. A section of the Mud Bay hiking trail that goes by the toe of the slide also has been closed. The hole in the road continued to break apart, with cracks spreading along the road. Walkers and bicyclists should use caution when going by the slide.

According to a press release from the Homer Police Department, the road fell apart about 8 a.m. April 19. Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities workers this morning placed barricades at both ends of the closed road and around the broken section of the road.

Wet soils apparently caused the slope below the road to slide into Mud Bay, taking out about a 100-foot section of the east-bound lane. The slide pushed one clump of spruce trees that had been by the edge of the road about 100 yards into Mud Bay. A jumble of thick mud, alder trees and fallen spruce trees laid at the bottom of the slide. Broken slabs of asphalt also littered the slide, and flaps of filter fabric fell over the mud.

This is a developing story with more details to follow.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.