Two more rockslides shut down US-95 briefly at Walker Lake last Friday, March 17, and another on Monday, March 20. The latest rockslides on that stretch of road linking Hawthorne and Schurz were not as bad as the March 11 slide, but also likely due to the heavy winter storms still affecting the Northern Nevada region.

The more minor slides on the 17th and 20th in adjoining areas from the original slide and did not inhibit traffic for as long. Mineral County Sheriff Bill Ferguson said that the March 17 rockslide happened at 2:30 a.m. and was cleared by 5:30 a.m.. The March 20 slide was cleared and open again in under an hour.

NDOT (Nevada Department of Transportation) did put a concrete barrier rail up along the shoulder of the area where the March 11 slide occurred to keep smaller debris from falling into the road but there wasn’t anything to keep the rocks from shedding onto the two-lane road in the other areas of Walker Lake. When the March 11 slide occurred, NDOT conducted a preliminary visual review of the area to forecast potential slides and will continue to do so in the following weeks.

“A lot of those rocks have been around since prehistoric Lake Lahontan times,” says NDOT Public Information Officer Meg Ragonese. NDOT wants to be careful about how it handles that rock shelf that’s been there for thousands of years, and definitely doesn’t want to disturb or cause bigger issues down the line.

“We don’t want to destabilize a geological slope that has been holding up for so long,” Ragonese adds. “[These rockslides] have likely been precipitated by heavy winter storms but these geological rock formations and rock shelf have been stable for a long time, so it’s difficult to know what has been causing this in recent instability of the base rock formation.”

In the coming weeks, NDOT will continue to analyze the area and decide the next course of action for how to minimize the potential and impact for rockslides and wants to remind people to stay safe and alert when traveling.

“This heavy winter and precipitation have the potential to bring rockfall and other weather-related incidents and hazards to our roadways. When traveling, plan accordingly and make sure your eyes are focused on the road in front of you,” Ragonese says.

Unsettled weather has been in the forecast for Mineral County this entire week; visit NVroads.com for current road conditions and try to avoid any unnecessary travel.