Slide shuts road east of Cedar City

CEDAR CITY — A massive mudslide has shut down a road near here for at least the next week.

State Route 14 near Cedar City was covered by boulders, rocks, dirt and trees in an overnight slide Tuesday.

"It appears that two peaks have come down and covered the road for about 1,000 feet for the full width of the roadway," Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Adan Carrillo wrote in an e-mail.

Authorities are trying to clean up the slide as well as make sure the above mountainside is stable. Some of the boulders are so big they may have to be blown up to get them out of the roadway.

UDOT said it anticipated the road may be closed for a week or two to clear it of debris and repair the pavement.

The agency recommends a northbound detour through Zion National Park on state Route 8 and then northbound on U.S. 89. Motorists going southbound will need to detour onto state Route 20, then southbound on U.S. 89 or state Route 143 through Parowan.

— Ben Winslow

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