Further repairs along Big Sur’s Highway 1 to cause nightly road closures
The next stage of repairs to stabilize the Rocky Creek Bridge “slip-out” on Highway 1 in Big Sur will again close the two-lane road, but the closures will occur only overnight, California Department of Transportation officials announced this week.
Beginning Monday, the damaged section of the roadway about 12 miles south of Carmel will partly close each night from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., with traffic expected to be delayed up to one hour, Caltrans said in an update. That work will continue through Thursday, July 25.
“Crews will use these partial closures to re-position the existing K-rail and place temporary striping to allow for construction activities in the southbound lane,” Caltrans officials said.
The following week, from July 28 through Aug. 1, the road will fully close from 9 p.m. through 6 a.m. for repair work, Caltrans officials said. Further closures are expected to be intermittently necessary after that week, officials said.
Since a chunk of Highway 1 fell into the ocean, Big Sur has been essentially isolated. Now, a stretch of roadway will be reopened using the northbound lane.
No overnight work is scheduled for Friday or Saturday nights, the agency said.
On March 30, a portion of Highway 1’s southbound lane collapsed during heavy rains, sending the roadway crumbling into the ocean. The slip-out initially closed that section of the highway for weeks.
A single lane of the damaged stretch was reopened to the public in mid-May, with vehicles taking turns heading in opposite directions via an alternating traffic signal.
To reopen both lanes, significant work is still necessary. Caltrans officials said the necessary repairs are expected to be complete next summer.
Meanwhile, other damaged sections of Highway 1 have been closed since January 2023. About 30 miles south of the Rocky Creek slip-out, a string of landslides — including one this winter — closed a stretch of the roadway near Lucia. That closure begins near Limekiln State Park from the south.
Kevin Drabinski, a spokesperson for Caltrans, said work on Regent’s Slide, the largest of the landslides that closed this section of roadway, is ongoing.
Caltrans hopes to be able to reopen that southern stretch by late fall, Drabinski said last month.
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