A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Southern California at 8:19 p.m. Friday with an epicenter 11 miles from Ridgecrest, Calif., a city that sits in the southern Indian Wells Valley and the northeast corner of Kern County. The earthquake, the largest in two decades, followed a 6.4 foreshock that struck the same area a day earlier.
On Sunday, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) said permanent construction repairs were started on State Route 178 (SR 178), about six miles east of Ridgecrest, where the highway cracked in three separate areas within four miles. Caltrans said in a press release that Bob Franzoia, interim director of Caltrans, signed an emergency order allocating $3.1 million the SR-178 repairs and that Sully-Miller Contracting Company has been contracted for the work.