A significant part of Route 66 in Southern Calfornia’s Mojave Desert may reopen by January after flood damage forced its closing in early September.
ZachNews, based in Needles, California, reported a 28-mile section of Route 66 from Ludlow to Amboy may reopen as soon as next month.
Unprecedented flash flooding closed almost all the roadway from Essex to Ludlow — a distance of more than 60 miles. If not for Kelbaker Road from Interstate 40, Amboy would be stranded entirely. Floodwaters on Sept. 8-9 damaged up to 50 bridges and parts of the road surface in that region.
As for the rest of Route 66 in that area, San Bernardino County says it hopes to have the road reopened entirely by March. If you plan to travel in the area this spring, you can consult this county map to see whether it’s open.
Local officials forming a Route 66 Corridor Management Plan for the route from Needles to Barstow, California, are concerned about future maintenance of the road. Even before the flooding, desert Route 66 had become rough in many places. Now the flooding issues have caused them to wonder how to keep the bridges, many of which are wood-beam structures that date to the 1930s.
Local officials also have incentive to keep Route 66 nominally maintained because the road often is used as a detour when wrecks close I-40.
(Image of repair work on a Route 66 bridge by San Benardino County Department of Public Works)
This is great news. There’s only one road like R66 and every inch of it has a memory that needs to be protected.