The 6200 block of Beach Drive that saw a significant landslide Sunday night and closed the road, has now been cleared. According to SDOT Spokesperson Rick Sheridan they have "cleaned up the slide debris on Beach Drive. At this point a geotechnical engineer is assessing the slope for stability and we are installing protective blocks along the roadway." The road is now open to traffic.

This is roughly the same place, though 100 feet further north, than the slide which closed the road last January 12.

Following that slide, SDOT came out and placed cement eco-blocks on the edge of the road, at the base of the hill. Each block weighs 3000 pounds and they can be stacked to form a barrier wall.

This slide brought down a large tree which was leaning on a telephone pole across the street Sunday night.

The mud and debris had covered a fire hyrdant which SDOT workers on the scene indicated would have to be carefully handled when they bring in a front loader to remove the mud, rocks and branches that extended some 12 to 15 feet into the road.

The root ball from another large tree was pressing on other trees that were leaning at crazy angles and cracking and popping branches into the night.

Another mudslide had blocked West Marginal Way south of the West Seattle Bridge, near Puget Park earlier in the day, and some of the same crew on Beach Drive had cleared that one in the morning.

Neighbors have varying points of view on exactly how or why the slides keep happening. Some believe it is just the nature of the land, soil and topography and point to the fact that slides have occurred in Lincoln Park. Others think that the development in the area has had an impact.

Mike Winter, who has lived across the street on Beach Drive since 1975, said, "The houses at the top of the hill went in, in the fall of 2007, and there was a big rain (...) We had slides here last January and so hopeful that there would be some plan put together to get some retention walls and it just hasn't happened (...) It's not so much the blame or whatever but the problem exists now and there's all sorts of house up there with different drainage and I just like to see us get a solution that can be structurally safe and sound and will retain the hillside. My wife and I just sweat when we see these Pineapple Expresses come through."

The hillside is bisected by a city right of way that runs diagonally across the hill.

A neighbor at the top of the hill, Marty Lyons whose home's foundation sits right next to where the slide began, said, "There have been scores of mudslides in this area since the city has been keeping records. It's easy for everybody to try and use a lay perspective to point the finger at someone else. Having said that, that wouldn't explain the mudslides in Lincoln Park. It is a natural phenomenon. More than likely and it's very difficult for anyone to put their finger on it and say how much did somebody contribute where and there so many intangibles you are never going to be able to figure it out. Everytime somebody does an improvement it may have an impact. Then again it could be nature. There's no way of determining (...) We just talked about it over dinner tonight and the worst case scenario is we all die, but through global failure and the odds of that happening are really low. The worst thing we'll probably see is a door won't open and we'll probably see some cracking and settling."

Lyons lives next to the newest homes at the crest of the hill and said the owner Peter Saladino is working on getting a retaining wall in and said, "I think he has a settlement in with the City or they are pursuing a settlement and he had talked with us about piggybacking our effort on his so we've been actually kind of waiting for that to happen. Hopefully by next summer something happens. We'll end up having a yard though the topography of this area is going to look very different than it does now."