California's scenic Highway 1 fully reopened for the first time in more than a year

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This was published 5 years ago

California's scenic Highway 1 fully reopened for the first time in more than a year

By Joseph Serna and Mary Forgione
Updated
Big Sur's iconic Bixby Bridge along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Big Sur's iconic Bixby Bridge along the Pacific Coast Highway.Credit: Kylie McLaughlin

A stretch of Highway 1 south of Big Sur, closed for 14 months after a massive landslide, reopened Wednesday morning, two days ahead of schedule, according to Caltrans.

The road reopened at 9:45 am Wednesday. That's good news for travellers, who can now drive between Carmel and San Luis Obispo without having to navigate around the closure at Mud Creek on the iconic route. For months, drivers who wanted to do the coastal drive have had to take long inland detours.

The new road extends 250 feet west of the original road. In an announcement, Caltrans warned drivers that there may be one-way traffic at times because work continues in the area.

The massive landslide that buried the road under a 40-foot layer of rock and dirt. A swath of the hillside gave way in an area called Mud Creek on Saturday, May 20, covering about half a kilometre of road and changing the Big Sur coastline.

The massive landslide that buried the road under a 40-foot layer of rock and dirt. A swath of the hillside gave way in an area called Mud Creek on Saturday, May 20, covering about half a kilometre of road and changing the Big Sur coastline.Credit: AP

Crews have been working on the roadway since a May 2017 landslide buried the highway under 40 feet of dirt, displaced 6 million cubic yards of debris and created 2,400 feet of new shoreline. Caltrans has spent $54 million to repair the road bed and reconstruct a quarter-mile stretch of new pavement.

The landslide was just one of a host of transportation hurdles thrown at Central Coast residents in the last two years, including a 132,000-acre fire in 2016 and record-breaking storms in the winter of 2017.

Last year's rains compromised Big Sur's connection to the north, Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, then dissolved the hillside supporting Nacimiento-Fergusson Road, which provided east-west access through the Santa Lucia Mountains. Then there was a slide at the appropriately named Paul's Slide, followed by the larger collapse at Mud Creek.

"We've had a cascade of events that have gone from bad to worse," Stan Russell, executive director of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce, said last year.

The result was economic isolation. The Post Ranch Inn took to flying in guests for their stays. Other tourism-reliant businesses reduced staff and cut hours. But over time, the town adjusted to its temporary situation.

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"The mantra we live with is 'living with landslides,'" said Caltrans spokeswoman Susana Cruz. "The community is very resourceful."

The reopening culminates a busy two years for Caltrans' Central Coast district. Besides the mudslides on Highway 1, they also had to clear closures on highways 9 and 17 and reopen Highway 101 in Santa Barbara County after this year's Montecito mudslide.

"Engineers are problem solvers by nature," said Shivers, the Caltrans spokesman. "Our job is to meet the challenge and basically deal with whatever hand Mother Nature deals us."

The road is scheduled to formally reopen Friday. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 11 a.m. Friday at the nearby Ragged Point Inn.

LA TIMES

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