A huge piece of California's Highway 1 near Big Sur collapsed into the ocean

[libertybele]

I'm sure Buttgig will be right on this!

A huge piece of California's Highway 1 near Big Sur collapsed into the ocean

A huge piece of California's Highway 1 was washed out this week by a winter storm that brought heavy rain and snow.
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) officials said in a statement Friday a debris flow from the hillside above the roadway "overwhelmed drainage infrastructure, flowed across the highway, and eroded the road resulting in the complete loss of a segment of Highway 1" at Rat Creek, about 15 miles south of Big Sur, a mountainous stretch of the state's central coast.
California Highway Patrol Officer John Yerace said he was in the area on Thursday around 4 p.m. when he noticed "this section of roadway, specifically the southbound lane, had fallen off into the ocean."
Images and drone footage from the scene show a huge gap in the scenic highway, which runs along much of the California coast.

Caltrans crews discovered the debris flow on Thursday, and issued an emergency contract to Papich Construction in San Luis Obispo County to assist with the repair. At daybreak Friday, Caltrans crews and emergency contractors arrived at the scene and found "both lanes of the highway had washed out."
The damage assessment team will continue to work through the weekend, Caltrans' statement said. It's unclear how long the repair could take and the road will remain closed in the meantime.....................

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/us/big-sur-road-collapse-trnd/index.html

[Hoodat]

A huge piece of California's Highway 1 was washed out this week by a winter storm that brought heavy rain and snow.

Global warming is to blame.

[PeteS in CA]

1. It's State Highway 1, what LA and Orange County denizens call The PCH (all highway names in SoCal-Speak include the definite article).

2. SR1 is among CA's oldest highways. It runs almost the full length of CA (700-800 miles?). By design it stays fairly close to the beach or cliff edge. So cliff collapses like this are frequent, sometimes 2 or more in a year. This slide is in Big Sur, approximately the middle of CA's coast, between Monterey and Cambria. Another well known slide site is Devil's Slide in the SF Peninsula, a bit south of Pacifica.

3. Obviously there are points along SR1 where the builders didn't understand the points' geographic dynamics. I cannot speak for the Big Sur area, but I do know that Enviros and NIMBYs kept re-routing around Devil's Slide tied up in courts and enviro-bureaucrats' approval/permits processes for decades. Big Sur probably doesn't have many NIMBYs; OTOH, Big Sur has high visibility among enviros. So my guess is that re-route efforts have similarly been stymied for decades.