Traveling Highway 1? Don't think so!

[notacop]

Latest is that 3/4 of a mile of Highway 1 is under 40 feet of rock/sand slide. This up by Big Sur.
Maybe open by the time the race at Laguna Seca happens? Maybe not?

[nkaj]

Maybe not.
http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/61/33/11.../5/920x920.jpg

[notacop]

What's funny about the clean up is that Cal Trans in an effort to be ecology sensitive, they will truck off all those tons of debris so it doesn't go in the water. The natural event was OK but they won't just push all the stuff blocking the highway over the side where it happened. Gonna cost a fortune in truck hauling contracts.....unless some one smart does the right thing and just move the debris in situ.
Up on Angeles Crest Cal Trans is always removing rock falls to a designated repository site. They don't just haul the stuff across the road and dump it down the hill. Huge expense.

[IanA]

Good luck stabilising the rest of the hillside! That trucking contract is just part of "a nice little earner", I suspect...

[Richard230]

If this keeps up you ought to be able to ride to Hawaii soon. Those poor people living between Goleta and Big Sur are sure screwed this year - and maybe next year, too. I bet there are a lot of "environmentalists" who would like to see Highway 1 never repaired and will sue to keep Cal Trans from cleaning up the mess. In California, every time someone wants to build something, especially a road, the courts seem to get involved to try to put a stop to it for as long as possible (apparently in the hopes that the money to perform the work will dry up).

In my town, Highway 1 is heavily traveled every week day by commuters and by beach-goers on the weekends. It hasn't been improved for the past 30 years and Cal Trans has been trying to spend $4 million to repair, widen and improve the highway to modern standards for many years. Every time they get ready to issue a contract someone in the city sues them claiming environmental damage will occur and stops the project for a few years. Once that suit is resolved, someone else sues and starts the delay process all over again. Just recently our newly elected "progressive" city council majority passed a law making it illegal to make any improvements to the state highway that runs through our town. When asked what commuters and people coming to our beaches should do for transportation, they say that they can ride the bus, ride a bicycle, or walk. No one should be driving a car in our city. Of course every one of these new council people are retired and no longer work for a living - and apparently don't have a life, either.

[Richard230]

Last night the TV news showed a map that had the slide located a few miles north of Goleta. (Apparently that was fake news.) My newspaper today showed the location of the slide a few miles south of Goleta, thereby apparently cutting off the town, what with with the bridge out some 45 miles north. The article also said that the Post Ranch Inn, located in the area that is cut off from traffic, is selling helicopter rides between Monterey and the resort. A two to four day stay goes for between $4,300 and $13,500, which of course, includes the helicopter ride and hopefully a Continental breakfast.

[notacop]

The land fall south of Big Sur by rough calculation is 35 or so miles south. Hadn't heard about the Goleta land fall.

[Richard230]

Here is a map of the Highway 1 closures. No wonder everyone is so confused about the locations. Which one do you want to talk about? They are all over the place! It sure looks to me like everyone that lives and works along that section of Highway 1 is screwed.

[Daboo]

Wait till the next big earthquake and all that slides into the ocean.

Chris

[Richard230]

Here is the latest photo of Highway 1's Mud Creek slide (now a Point) that was published in my newspaper today. It is going to take a long time to fix this problem. Right now Caltrans and their civil and geotechnical engineering consultants are having a ball coming up with ideas on how to get the highway over, under, around, or through the new Mud Creek Point.

[notacop]

Richard, big difference between Goleta and Gorda. actually 200 miles. Access by Nacimiento Fergguson is sucky as a one lane 2 way road.
In any case an open Hwy 1 will be a while.

[Richard230]

Richard, big difference between Goleta and Gorda. actually 200 miles. Access by Nacimiento Fergguson is sucky as a one lane 2 way road.
In any case an open Hwy 1 will be a while.

I know. At the time I must have been thinking of Halloween gourds.

[Richard230]

The latest news from Caltrans is that they should have a new road in place bypassing the Mud Creek slide in about a year or so (keep in mind this is a government estimate) at a (government estimated) cost of $40 million. However, the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge should be complete and opened to traffic by the end of this month - at a government approved cost of $24 million. Until the Mud Creek bypass is built you will not be able to travel from Southern California to Monterey via Highway 1, but you will be able to travel from Monterey to the big Mud Creek slide and back - assuming that no more slides appear next winter.

[notacop]

"it never rains in California, man, it pours." words of some song.