Alaska highway opens to 1-lane traffic after landslide

COOPER LANDING, Alaska (AP) — The state transportation department announced it had opened to one-lane traffic Monday a section of a south-central Alaska highway that had been closed due to a landslide.

The department on social media Sunday reported the slide around milepost 50 of the Sterling Highway. The affected section opened to one-lane traffic Monday, the department announced.

Shannon McCarthy, a department spokesperson, said the location is near Cooper Landing, which is a community of about 275 people 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Seward.

McCarthy said an early estimate indicated the slide was about 100 feet (30 meters) wide with mud that was 3 feet (0.9 meters) deep with trees sticking out of it. She said rains Sunday had complicated cleanup efforts.

She said traffic was being limited to one lane while crews worked to move material off the shoulders of the road and out of ditches. She said a guardrail was missing and that a crew would address that.