The closure begins south of Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn and then extends a mile south of Ragged Point, approximately 45.6 miles. The area has seen multiple rockslides during California’s rainy season, including during the New Year’s Eve storm that also wreaked havoc across the Bay Area.
45 years ago this week we were trying to drive the coast highway on our honeymoon. It rained ten of the fourteen days and slides closed the highway. None of this is new. I believe that year the road went into the ocean instead of being buried.
ReplyDeleteCan you just push the debris over the edge or does it have to be hauled away?
ReplyDeleteMostly over the side. Some used to level damaged roadbed or embankments.
DeletePush it over the side like they did fifty years ago in days not weeks. Now you need to let contracts and impose lots of regulations.
DeleteNot the first time it was closed in the winter... too bad, that is one heck of a drive!
ReplyDeleteI lived in Monterey when the 1995-1996 La Niña hit.
ReplyDeleteThat one turned Monterey into an island and washed out the bridge from Carmel to Big Sur.
La Niñas come and go. It's nothing new.
Gee, if this was Florida there'd be one lane with alternating flow of traffic within 3 days, and the road would be completely clear in a week, repairs finished in two weeks.
ReplyDeleteYes, just shovel most of it off the cliff, as that's where it's headed anyways.
You don't understand. Highway One in Big Sur is built on the side of mountains. The land is highly fractured. Look up Fransican Melange.
DeleteSide note: the debate continues among geologists and geophysicists as to why the ground is so fractured. Notable scientists from around the globe have made careers in studying that area.
The traffic flow you describe is what they do. But it takes time to stabilize the area to permit that.
Oh the stories I could tell. For over 30 yrs I lived on the coast south of Big Sur. I worked and played and studied the rock along that coast. The South Coast (beginning south of Deetjens and continuing south) is where the slide occur. Big Sur proper is relatively slide free.
AnonymousJanuary 8, 2023 at 9:41 PM
DeleteYou're part of the problem. Complicating simple things. Stabilize? Fractured? Starting at the edges you just keep pushing it over until it stops coming down.
Good to see your tax dollars are working hard for you... that fence in the first picture.... Ha Ha Ha!
ReplyDeleteThat metal mesh is to prevent ocassional rockfall onto the highway. But when the entire slope lets loose nothing is gonna stop it.
DeleteSee also slickenside. Fractured blocks sliding on one another like slippery ice.
In 1984, a man named Skinner from Morro Bay was using his D8 on contract to CalTrans to cut a new roadbed after a slide of over 2 million cu yds. A second slide ocurred and he was seen riding his Cat down the slope to the beach far below. The initial slide was estimated to close the highway for over a year. The scars of that slide are still quite visible Since then, there have been many other slides in that same area.
ReplyDeleteThey found the Cat but Skinner was gone. CalTrans made several attempts to recovery the machine, all of which failed. It was open to anyone who could recover it could have it. I don't remember how much time later - it could have been several years - that a man waited for the lowest tides of the year. He dug out the partially buried Cat and drove it a mile or so down the beach then cut a ramp to rejoin the highway where it dipped down close to the shore.
Skinner was well liked, the celebration of his life was well attended.
In 1989 I took a job building a resort in Big Sur. We'd spend the week in travel trailers on site then drive home for the weekend.
ReplyDeleteEarly Monday morning I would make the 90 mile drive to work. A couple of others would also be making the same drive in the dark morning hours. It became a race where all that could be seen were the truck lights of my coworkers.
Monday morning is before the CalTrans crew have cleared the road of fallen rocks which was a never ending job. So our race also involved dodging rock. The rock ranged in size from pebbles to VW bug size boulders and sometimes larger. It was fun and a great way to wake up.
Thats just one of my many stories along the famous Hwy 1 along that coast. I do fiercely miss the beautful coast. I cannot in good conscience return because of the rotten decrepit government.
Biden should put hundreds of illegals on CH47s, chopper them in and raid the local Home Depot for all the shovels they have. Executive order...take ALL THE SHOVELS! Get them illegals digging! Clear that damm road! Then have them hump the dirt out in backpacks, 100 lbs at a time. No, we aren't putting you on another bus, you are WALKING! OH! 100lbs of dirt is heavy? No heavier than 100lbs of FENTANYL that you carried across the border! Hump it all the way to Chicago and dump it in around their big LAKE!!! This barrier will prevent Illinois from being completely flooded when glaciers melt, completely covering Canada then Illinois. Trust me, this plan should work.
ReplyDeletePlus, California's mountains are still growing, a couple of centimeters per year in places, if I remember correctly. Hence, the cycle of fire, loss of vegetation, rain and then mudslides.
ReplyDelete