See dramatic drone video of the mudslide that wiped out Highway 1 in Big Sur
First a chunk of Highway 1 was swept away. Now, both lanes of the scenic roadway in Big Sur have collapsed into the Pacific Ocean following a major winter storm.
The Monterey division of the California Highway Patrol shared a photo via Facebook on Thursday evening, showing where a portion of the road appeared to have fallen down the hillside due to the heavy deluge of rain that struck the area this week.
Caltrans District 5 spokesman Kevin Drabinski said the agency learned Thursday afternoon that Highway 1 at Rat Creek, about 30 miles north of the San Luis Obispo County line, was hit by a debris flow and part of the roadway was washed away.
Authorities planned to go out and assess the situation early Friday morning, Drabinski said.
They expected to see that part of the southbound lane was missing.
Instead, officials discovered, both the northbound and southbound lanes of the two-lane highway were completely gone.
Dramatic drone video footage of the roadway released by Caltrans on Friday shows a pile of mud and debris and a large gaping hole where the road should be.
This means this section of Highway 1 will likely be impassable for some time.
The area has previously been susceptible to mudslides and road damage. 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 the roadway ahead of major winter storms to reduce risk to drivers.
About 45 miles of the scenic roadway were shut down this week in preparation for rain and potential storm impacts.
It’s unclear when the road will reopen. That depends largely upon the assessment made by crews that have been examining the slide area all day.
As of Friday evening, that assessment report has not been filed, Caltrans said.
Caltrans did announced it has entered into a $5 million emergency contract with Papich Construction of San Luis Obispo County to assist with repair of the highway slide out.
On Tuesday, Caltrans announced that it was closing Highway 1 from Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County to just south of Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn in Monterey County.
On Friday morning, the agency extended the closure to the stretch of highway between Ragged Point and Fullers Point due to the risk of mudslides.
Businesses on Highway 1 from Carmel to Big Sur and south to the full closure remain open.
Cambria business owners react to Highway 1 closure
Mary Ann Carson, executive director of the Cambria Chamber of Commerce, said she’s worried about the closure of a critical section of Highway 1 linking Carmel and Big Sur 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,” Carson said.
“Then we had the normal January slow season were looking forward” to increasing visitor traffic in February, she added.
She 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,” Carson 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,” Bruce wrote. “Highway 1 closures hurt local businesses and, after 2020, we can’t really weather too many more challenges to our tourism industry.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 3:08 PM.
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