page_title: Big Sur Coast Highway
section_title: Repeated closings
hierarchical_section_title: Big Sur Coast Highway / Recent history / Repeated closings
caption_attribution_description: English: The Pitkins Curve bridge and the Rain Rocks Rock Shed at Pitkins Curve on Highway 1 on the Big Sur, California, coast.
context_page_description: Big Sur Coast Highway is a section of California State Route 1 through the Big Sur region of California that is widely considered to be one of the most scenic driving routes in the United States, if not the world. It was the first California Scenic Highway and the first federal All American Road. It has been compared to the Amalfi Coast of Italy, the rugged scenic north coast of Taiwan, and roadways in the Andes. Condé Nast Traveler named State Route 1 through Big Sur one of the top 10 world-famous streets, comparable to Broadway in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
  The Big Sur portion of Highway 1 is generally considered to include the 71-mile segment adjoining the unincorporated region of Big Sur between Malpaso Creek near Carmel Highlands in the north and San Carpóforo Creek near San Simeon in the south.
  Prior to its completion, the California coast south of Carmel and north of San Simeon was one of the most remote regions in the state, rivaling at the time nearly any other region in the United States for its difficult access. At the turn of the 19th century, the 30 mi trip from Monterey to the Pfeiffer Ranch in the Big Sur valley could take three days by wagon.
context_section_description: The steep topography, active faults, diverse geology, and seasonal storms combine to make the rugged Big Sur area one of the most landslide-prone stretches of the California coast. As a result, the California Department of Transportation has had to make many repairs to the road. Highway 1 has been closed on more than 55 occasions due to damage from landslides, mudslides, erosion, and fire. Aside from Highway 1, the only access to Big Sur is via the winding, narrow, 24.5 miles (39.4 km) long Nacimiento-Fergusson Road, which from Highway 1 south of Lucia passes east through Fort Hunter Liggett to Mission Road in Jolon. It's about a 50 miles (80 km) and hour-and-a-half drive to U.S. Route 101 (US 101).
  On January 15, 1952, the highway was closed 7 miles (11 km) north of San Simeon to Big Sur due to "numerous heavy slides." December 1955 was the fifth wettest since 1872. At the Big Sur Maintenance Station, 8.45 inches of rain was recorded in one 24-hour period on December 23. Torrential rains caused flood conditions throughout Monterey County and Highway 1 in Big Sur was closed in numerous locations due to slides.
  A series of storms in the winter of 1983 caused four major road-closing slides between January and April, including a large 963 feet (294 m) high landslide slide near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and McWay Falls that buried Highway 1 with 4,000,000 cubic yards (3,100,000 m³) of rocks and dirt. Twenty-six bulldozers worked for 22 weeks to clear the highway. The repair crews pushed the slide into the ocean which ended up creating a beach inside McWay Cove that didn't exist before. It was up to that date the largest earth-moving project ever undertaken by CalTrans. CalTrans routinely pushed slide debris into the ocean shore until the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was created in 1992, which made dumping material into the ocean illegal. Highway 1 was closed for 14 months.
  In 1998, about 40 different locations on the road were damaged by El Niño storms, including a major slide 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Gorda that closed the road for almost three months. The Associated Press described the damage as "the most extensive destruction in the 60-year history of the world famous scenic route."
  In March 2011, a 40 feet (12 m) section of Highway 1 just south of the Rocky Creek Bridge collapsed, closing the road for several months until a single lane bypass could be built. The state replaced that section of road with a viaduct that wraps around the unstable hillside. On January 16, 2016, the road was closed for portions of a day due to a mudslide near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.
  In January 2014, CalTrans completed construction of a new bridge and rock shelter at Pitkins Curve in Big Sur, one of the ongoing trouble spots on Highway 1 near Limekiln State Park.
  One individual was killed while repairing the road. In 1983, Skinner Pierce died while clearing the slide near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park when the bulldozer he was operating fell down the slide into the ocean. His body was never recovered.
caption: The Pitkins Curve bridge and rock shed protect Highway 1 from rock slides.
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