Highway 41 remains closed in both directions from San Gabriel Road to Los Altos Road in Atascadero due to a landslide.
It's been closed since Tuesday, March 14. Caltrans expects to reopen the highway next weekend.
Meanwhile, those who conduct business along Highway 41 in Atascadero have noticed a difference.
Guadalupe Rodriguez has been selling strawberries along the side of the highway for the past eight years.
“When I got here and saw the closure, I said, 'Oh my God, it’s going to impact my sales,'" she said. "We can’t move from here because the town already knows this is our spot for many years.”
“Being on this end of town, I guess one of the biggest opportunities we have is we do get a lot of traffic of people going to Morro Bay and even coming back from Morro Bay,” said Cristal Fernandez, owner of El Taconazo Mexican Restaurant.
Caltrans says excavators and a tree contractor are working to clear the landslide. So far, they've removed about 6,000 yards of dirt and have another 10,000 yards to cut from the slope.
“We have trees that are needing to be removed there. We also have rocks as well as one of the boulders is three feet high, so we're doing a lot of clearing right now just to stabilize the hillside,” said Alexa Bertola, Caltrans spokesperson.
While Highway 41 remains closed, travelers can take Highway 46 or Highway 1 as alternate routes.
