I bicycle Highway 1 from Carmel to San Luis Obispo and was distressed to learn of the chip-seal paving nightmare in the Cambria area.

Caltrans did a similar chip seal on CA 130 (Mt. Hamilton Road) in the San Jose area, also a popular cycling route. Surprisingly, after chip sealing a five-mile stretch with one of the roughest road surfaces one can imagine, the next five miles were paved with hot asphalt, providing one of the finest cycling roads in the area. I don’t know why Caltrans put two entirely different types of paving jobs on 10 miles of Mt. Hamilton Road, but it makes you wonder about its management capability.

Highway 1 near Cambria should have been paved with hot asphalt laid down with paving machines, instead of just spreading and rolling the gravel and tar-chip-seal mix. It needs to be repaved with hot asphalt.