When will Highway 1 reopen to Big Sur? Good news on one slide, but not on two others
The second of three major slides that blocked Highway 1 traffic between San Simeon and Big Sur starting in January is set to reopen March 30, extending access farther up the scenic coastline.
“Those conditions will continue to be evaluated,” Caltrans District 5 spokesman Kevin Drabinski said Monday, especially as additional storms hit the area.
According to Drabinski, powerful winds forecast for Monday night through Wednesday morning could cause additional impacts.
Even if winds aren’t as strong as predicted, he said, “Trees and poles could be knocked over because the ground is so saturated.”
Reopening Highway 1 at Mill Creek still won’t allow full travel along the scenic coastline, thanks to a more troublesome closure at the notorious Paul’s Slide.
A smaller slide at Polar Star south of Ragged Point reopened in February, allowing access to the southern portion of the Big Sur coast.
Additional sliding there since a March 10 storm made it necessary to reclose the highway at that point.
Drabinski said he expects the closure will extend from Ragged Point to Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn after this week’s storm.
Before the March 10 storm, Drabinski previously said, repairs at Mill Creek were “in their final stages.”
“The slope above the roadway has maintained its integrity during all recent rain events,” he said then. “Temporary concrete barriers still need to be installed along the southbound travel lane while permanent guardrail is being manufactured.
“A small number of additional repairs still need to be made which require a period of dry weather before they can be accomplished,” he said, adding that approximately 30,000 cubic yards of material were removed during repairs at Mill Creek.
Highway 1 access will extend north
If storm and road conditions allow the Mill Creek reopening to happen as scheduled March 30, Drabinski said, “The southern closure limit will move north to a safe turnaround location below the south end of Paul’s Slide.”
He said travel for locals prior to the full reopening of the roadway may be possible on an intermittent basis from the southern gate of Paul’s Slide south through Mill Creek.
That continuing blockade on the scenic route will take longer to reopen, he continued.
“There is no estimated time for reopening Highway 1 at Paul’s Slide,” Drabinksi said. “It may be in the range of several months. Crews will continue to work all daylight hours seven days a week to make these repairs.”
Why is Paul’s Slide so hard to clear this time?
Drabinski laid out the Paul’s Slide history and challenges.
“For several years, Caltrans has managed debris falling at Paul’s Slide by creating a catchment area along the northbound shoulder. Concrete barriers and fencing were utilized as a protective barrier between the travel lanes and the catchment area,” he said. “Falling debris would gather in the catchment area behind the concrete barriers and be removed at a later time.”
The Paul’s Slide catchment area filled with debris and was cleared several times between last November and this January.
Then on Jan. 15, the slide area let loose with what Drabinski dubbed as “major activity,” adding that “slide material overwhelmed the catchment area along the northbound shoulder. The slide pushed concrete barriers from the northbound shoulder into the center of the roadway.
Unfortunately, “Since Paul’s Slide reactivated, there has been no meaningful protection which could be provided for travelers below the slide,” he said.
“What’s visible is only part of the problem,” Drabinski explained. “While the effects of the slide on the roadway are visible, the magnitude of the slide above the roadway is more difficult to appreciate. Along an almost quarter mile of the mountain, the Jan. 15 slide displaced a massive amount of material, resulting in a bulging new slide within the larger slide.
“Almost like slicing a piece of birthday cake, the repair strategy calls for a vertical cut to be made on the mountain, which will sculpt the slope in a way that will permit it to regain stability,” he said.
One reason the repairs are taking so long, Drabinski said, is “this repair has to be made in top-down fashion both for the safety of the crews removing the slide material and because the toe of the slide is currently providing a resisting force against downward force of the slide material above it.”
“Crews have established an initial pathway to the top of the slide area and have begun to bring material down,” he said. “This work has been slowed by recent rains.”
He estimated the amount of material to be removed at Paul’s Slide so far to be about 500,000 cubic yards.
That’s more than 15 times more material than was removed at the Polar Star or Mill Creek slides, which happened Jan. 4 and Jan. 14, respectively, during a series of storms.
The Polar Star area, the southernmost of the three slides, reopened to controlled traffic Feb. 11, but was cut off again by damage from the March 10 storm.
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 12:05 PM.
