Recent slide activity along the Big Sur Coastal Highway could further delay reopening.
Adam Oates, who is visiting the Central Coast from Bakersfield, originally planned to drive north with his family all the way to Monterey. But he says the road closure along the Big Sur Highway drastically reduced the distance of their trip.
“Uh it cut it in half. It literally cut the distance in half,” said Oates.
Though disappointed the trip would be cut short — his family still decided to visit the areas that are open.
“It is what it is,” said Oates.
Caltrans officials say the winter storms caused five major slides — essentially closing a large portion of the big sur highway in both San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties earlier this year. An area known as Paul’s Slide has been the focus of clean up efforts since March.
“That work has resulted in a continuing two mile closure, so Highway One closed between Limekiln State Park and Lucia,” said Kevin Drabinski, Caltrans District 5 Public Information Officer.
Recent slide activity at the repair sight has led to a pause in the clean up effort.
“We’ve pulled off on any removal of slide material and we’re doing extensive investigations to see the new conditions as a result of these slides,” said Drabinski.
Drabinski says Caltrans is creating a plan in order to move forward with repairs to the road, but there is no set timeline for reopening.
“These are changeable conditions and since the mountain is still moving, an estimate on when we might reopen it, that’s a moving target as well,” said Drabinski.
Caltrans tells us they are expecting to have a timeline for when the road will fully reopen within the coming months.
