Conditions remain too dangerous for vehicle travel on Highway 41 near Yosemite entrance

FISH CAMP, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresh snow now covers where a large section of Highway 41 collapsed Tuesday near Fish Camp. The road into Yosemite remains closed while crews cleared the road and Caltrans engineers surveyed the damage.

"Since then it has been closed to all vehicles that includes park staff, police, emergency vehicles, the road right now cannot simply handle a vehicle and we cannot any vehicles over it right now," said Cory Burkarth, Caltrans.

Caltrans deemed the entire section too dangerous for travel after too much water from rain and snow eroded the roadbed underneath.

"The problem is water is our biggest enemy, until we solve the issues underneath that road way it's going to continue to wash away that material," said Burkarth.

Tourists like Svitlana and her family were disappointed to learn the highway going into Yosemite was closed.

"We came here, actually on Tuesday when it was raining so we thought we'll come back today and so, unfortunately it's closed but we made the best of it."

The highway was already down to one lane in that area after the southbound shoulder was washed out back on February 9. With so many people traveling this road every day the closure will take commuters an extra hour or more to drive around it until the road is fixed and reopened again

"This isn't a decision we make lightly because we know the impact this will have on people's commute, this is going to add over 60 minutes of driving one way," said Burkarth.

The closure will continue through next week at the minimum while crews continue to assess the damage.