A section of winding Highway 116 slid into the Russian River in Sonoma County on Monday, and the washout near Monte Rio is only expected to grow as the rain-soaked banks of the river continue to be saturated and unstable.

The washout began around 4 pm Monday, with a 75- to 100-foot section of the eastern lane of Highway 116 collapsing and taking trees and a piece of guardrail with it, just west of Monte Rio — about five miles past Guerneville if you were heading to the coast. As the Press Democrat reports, the earth beneath the roadway was "likely loosened by the surging waterway and runoff from the recent storms," with the Russian River cresting Tuesday at just two feet below flood stage — a 30-foot rise since New Year's Eve.

A photo posted by Caltrans early Tuesday showed the roadway still mostly intact up to the white line at the egde of the eastbound lane, but subsequent photos published by the Press Democrat showed the washout growing and encroaching on more of the lane. One-way traffic is proceeding through the area in the westbound lane.

As the Press Democrat reports, Caltrans is estimating that repair work could take up to a year after it begins, and those who use Highway 116 between Guerneville and the coast can expect one-way-only traffic in this area for a long time to come.

Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins expressed concern about the situation, because Highway 116 is "a primary evacuation route and commuting road" for the communities nearby. "If it isn’t repaired before summer, it’s going to cause huge headaches for residents, local businesses and visitors," Hopkins tells the Press Democrat.

Caltrans is on site monitoring the situation, but Caltrans spokesperson Jeff Weiss tells the paper, "We’re doing our best to keep the road in place, but there’s very little we can do right now, except for put it under one-way traffic control and keep people on the westbound lane."

Sonoma County is under a flood watch until 7 pm Wednesday, due to surging creeks and rivers following the last two weeks of rain.

"The river just erodes things. You can’t stop this wonderful force of nature," says Cazadero resident Karen Harris, speaking to the Press Democrat. She notes that every year some section of road in the area tends to disappear.

As the news outlet notes, Caltrans just completed a repair over the summer of 2025 of a section of road in Guerneville’s Montesano neighborhood that was damaged in a landslide in December 2024.

Last February, a portion of Westside Road in Forestville was compromised following a landslide that took an entire home with it.