The screenshot of a drone video by the Monterey County Sheriff shows Highway 1 destroyed near Big Sur on Jan 31, 2021
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A California Highway Patrol officer secures the site near Rat Creek.
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The area is considered to be at risk of landslides after severe forest fires.
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The route should remain closed for a long time.
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Part of the legendary Highway 1 slides into the sea
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The screenshot of a drone video by the Monterey County Sheriff shows Highway 1 destroyed near Big Sur on Jan 31, 2021
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A California Highway Patrol officer secures the site near Rat Creek.
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The area is considered to be at risk of landslides after severe forest fires.
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The route should remain closed for a long time.
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Highway 1 on California’s Pacific coast is one of the most famous roads in the world. At the weekend a landslide collapsed part of it – and in the future it is unlikely to get any better.
After heavy rainfall on Thursday, a 50-meter-long section of California State Route 1, also known as Highway 1, broke away and slid into the Pacific. As the Caltrans transport authority announced, the world-famous panoramic road around 25 kilometers south of Big Sur had to be closed.
The masses of water shooting down the slope had “overwhelmed the sewer system, flooded the highway and eroded the road, which led to the complete slipping of a highways segment,” said the Caltrans.
Recordings made with a drone show the extent of the demolition of the weekend.
California Highway Patrol officer John Yerace told CNN that he had previously been in the area and noticed that “the stretch of road, and especially the southbound lane, had plunged into the ocean.” He then stayed on site to ensure the safety of road users.
The area is said to be around 1.5 kilometers from a point where violent forest fires raged last summer, Caltrans said. Another section of Highway 1 was reopened in July 2018 after a massive mudslide made it impassable for almost half a kilometer in May 2017, damaging the old Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge. The structure had to be demolished and replaced.
After storms with heavy rain, California’s governor Gavin Newsom declared the affected region a state of emergency in order to quickly mobilize aid and funds for repairs. There are warnings of further landslides and floods.
In California, severe forest fires are a seasonal event and violent landslides are regularly recorded. Most scientists assume, however, that in the course of global warming, the fires will occur more frequently and will be more devastating. Soil erosion is also likely to increase sharply. Highway 1, hailed as one of the most beautiful coastal roads in the world, could therefore have to be closed even more frequently in the future. How long it will take this time is not yet known.
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