Hwy. 1 collapse in Big Sur leaves North Coast businesses facing another tourism hit
A mudslide demolished a section of Highway 1 near Big Sur, a potential disaster for tourist-oriented businesses on both sides of the slide cutting off through traffic between San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties.
News broke Jan. 28 that a chunk of Highway 1 — and the cliff below it — had crumbled into the Pacific Ocean.
Caltrans District 5 spokesman Kevin Drabinski said the agency learned the afternoon of Jan. 28 that Highway 1 had been hit with a debris flow at Rat Creek, about 30 miles north of the San Luis Obispo County line.
Officials initially thought that part of the two-lane roadway was washed away, but discovered later that both the northbound and southbound lanes were completely gone.
This means this section of Highway 1 will likely be impassable for some time.
That’s bad news for North Coast merchants, who worry about the loss of a crucial link from Big Sur and Carmel to San Luis Obispo County.
“Oh my gosh! All our businesses came through the spring, summer and fall,” because people in other areas “were desperate to get out of their towns,” Mary Ann Carson, executive director of the Cambria Chamber of Commerce, said.
“Then we had the normal January slow season were looking forward” to increasing visitor traffic in February, she added.
Carson called the Highway 1 closure “another impediment to tourism that will impact our already suffering businesses.”
“We can’t take another year or two years of no traffic,” she said. “It would be great if the state would build a temporary road, maybe behind that hill, for people to traverse while Caltrans rebuilds the damaged section. I’m sure (chamber board president) Mel McColloch will be on the job, bugging Caltrans.”
Cambria resident and magician Rick Bruce echoed those sentiments on Facebook on Friday morning.
“I really hope that they can get this fixed before summer. Highway 1 closures hurt local businesses,” Bruce wrote, “and, after 2020, we can’t really weather too many more challenges to our tourism industry.”
In 2017, a massive mudslide cut off much of the region for more than a year. Since then, Caltrans and the CHP have preemptively shut down portions of Highway 1 ahead of major winter storms to reduce risk to drivers.
On Jan. 26, Caltrans announced that it was closing a 45-mile stretch of Highway 1 from Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County to just south of Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn in Monterey County.
The agency extended the closure Jan. 29 to the stretch of highway between Ragged Point and Fullers Point due to the risk of mudslides.
Aaron Linn, general manager of Linn’s enterprises and business representative to the North Coast Advisory Council, said Friday he had met with Shanny Covey, owner of Robin’s restaurant “discuss a plan so that we are on the same page,” for the reopening of outdoor service and the probable closing of Highway 1. Other restaurateurs were invited to attend, but weren’t able to do so.
“We decided to open up ‘soft’ and on weekends for now,” with full service outside, Linn said, while customers can continue to “order at the counter or over the telephone,” still having the option to eat their to-go orders at outdoor tables.
“With rain expected Tuesday, it does not make much sense to staff to the hilt” yet, he said, adding that the Highway 1 slip-out could make it harder to make ends meet. “We have to wait to call in all of the help until it is necessary.”
Dan Falat, superintendent of State Parks’ San Luis Obispo Coast District, said, “unfortunately, this is the nature of what’s happened before” on the steep, fragile stretch of the scenic highway.
Some local state campgrounds were tentatively due to open Friday, Falat said, and his staff will continue to evaluate conditions for safe camping. Montana de Oro State Park near Los Osos remains closed to camping, he said, due to a non-storm-related issue.
Like Falat, Stan Russell of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce said he remains cautiously hopeful that a quick solution to the Highway 1 closure can be found.
“Caltrans does amazing work. They can get things done quickly,” Russell said. “Now that the state has lifted the stay-at-home order, places here have started to open up … and now this.”
In the meantime, businesses on both ends of the closure remain open, a crucial point that Russell and Cambria officials stressed.
“Visitors can get here, camp, hike, go to restaurants and hotels,” he said, while enjoying the dramatic shoreline and amazing views from those sections of Highway 1 that remain open.
This story was originally published January 31, 2021 at 5:05 AM.
