Business & Tech

Road Collapse Closes Highway 1 Before Big Sur

UPDATE: It will be a month before repairs can begin, according to Caltrans, which is closing a two-mile stretch after Rocky Point The popular tourist route could be closed indefinitely after a 40-foot stretch of road falls into the sea.

Bay City News reports:

    The two-mile section of Highway 1 at Rocky Point, which is north
of Big Sur, between Bixby Creek Bridge and Palo Colorado Road will remain
closed due to severe roadway damage to the southbound lane, Caltrans said.
      A Caltrans spokesman for District 5, which includes Monterey, Big
Sur and San Luis Obispo counties, said that crews were assessing the damage
and determined that it will take at least a month before a temporary repair
can be made.
      "We know it was a slip-out and that the road gave way," spokesman
Jim Shivers said, but Caltrans had not yet released information about the
road failure's cause.
      The last time a nearby section of the roadway collapsed, Shivers
said, was in 1998, after El Nino storms from January and February of that
year caused more than $32 million in damage to the Carmel-San Simeon stretch.
     That year, about 40 different sections over a 70-mile stretch of
the highway were closed due to flooding, slip-outs and landslides, according
to Caltrans.
      According to Caltrans records of road closures along Highway 1 in
District 5, sometime near the end of March 1999, a landslide closed a portion
of the roadway known as Hurricane Point for three months.
      Hurricane Point is located about a mile from the portion of the
road that is currently damaged.
      All businesses along the coastal highway remain open, and
alternate routes include U.S. Highway 101, and state highways 46 and 68.
      "Hopefully, at the end of that month we'll have some sort of
temporary condition that will allow traffic to go through," Shivers said.
      The closure applies to all travelers, including emergency
vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.

The CHP listed the closure as just south of Hurricane Point, about 15 miles from Carmel. Only emergency vehicles and some local foot traffic is allowed.

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The storied tourist route links Santa Cruz to one of the state's most popular attractions, Hearst Castle, and one of the most scenic drives in the world.

KSBW has maps and pictures.

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The Big Sur Facebook page has a powerful picture and reminders that businesses are open.

In recent years, the highway has been closed for long periods because of wildfires in Big Sur and washouts, though the road failures tend to occur farther south near Lucia.


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