A portion of Highway 1 south of Carmel will close for 24 hours this weekend as Caltrans continues repairs on the Rocky Creek slide. Both lanes of the road will be closed at Rocky Creek from Saturday at 10pm to Sunday at 10pm. The site is about 12 miles south of Carmel.
Kevin Drabinski is a spokesperson for the California Department of Transportation District 5 and explains they need a full closure, “so that two cranes can be placed at either end of the project's site and nine precast concrete girders can be laid down.”
A landslide in March closed the highway, and it opened back up with one lane in May.
Drabinski says once the girders are in place, Caltrans will pave the southbound lane and begin working on the northbound lane. That will mark the halfway point of the project.
“We expect the entire project to be completed [in the] summer of 2025,” he said.
Repairing the section of road is estimated to cost $20 million to $30 million. Drabinski says the Rocky Creek slide is one of many in Big Sur.
“Geologists have identified 1,500 slides between San Carpoforo Creek and the Carmel River on Highway 1,” he said.
Drabinski adds that landslides have been a problem since the coastal highway was originally built.
“I think anybody that takes the experience of the Big Sur coast in recognizes that they're running on the edge of the continent. But, really, that long conversation that's been going on between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Lucia mountains... and this road kind of travels and negotiates through that conversation,” he said.
After this weekend’s closure, 40 miles of the Big Sur Coast will again be accessible from the north. But work continues on a different slide farther south.
