Pacific Coast Highway: Landslide destroys iconic stretch of road in Big Sur

Tourists won't be able to do a classic American road trip on the Pacific Coast Highway this summer

Part of the Pacific Coast Highway has collapsed (Monterey County Sheriff's Office)

A section of the world-famous Highway 1 will be closed for months following a huge landslide which deposited over a million tons of debris on the road.

Following the wettest winter on record, the highway collapse on Saturday, which destroyed about a third of a mile of the iconic Pacific Coast Highway, was the third major incident in Big Sur this year. The area has suffered after a series of closures hit its only road, limiting access to the north and south since February.

The remote portion of Highway 1 is a defined as a ‘National Scenic Byway’ in the US for its stunning vistas of undeveloped shoreline. The 76-mile stretch between Cambria and Carmel-by-the-Sea is a tourist hotspot and during the busy summer season an average of 6,000 cars a day pass through the now closed section.

State transportation officials said on Wednesday the slide was one of the region’s largest in decades and aerial images show a huge mass of earth reaching over Highway 1 and into the sea in the Mud Creek Area of Big Sur. The incident occurred next to a smaller slide that has already closed that section of the road.

California Department of Transportation spokesman Colin Jones said: "I think it's safe to say it will be several months before it reopens. We haven't even been able to get in and assess the damage and come up with a plan." Jones added that the repaired highway may have to be rerouted entirely around the damaged section, which may not open until September.

No injuries or property damage have been reported, but the slides have had a huge impact on local residents who, before this year, were used to smaller incidents that crews cleared up in a few hours. Many are now literally boxed in.

Close to 500 people have been affected, and the only access for residents remains a one-mile hiking trail hurriedly dug into the surrounding forest. The community is remaining stoic, a natural reaction from a group of people who have lived through forest fires and six years of California drought. “I feel like a million bucks,” says Doris Jolicoeur, the head of hospitality at the famous Deetjen’s Inn. “But when the storm was coming in, with all that wind and rain, I was frightened.”

Tourism, however, a year-round business in Big Sur, has been hugely affected. “Most businesses here won’t be in a position to make a profit until the bridge reopens,” said Kirk Gafill, President of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce and owner of Nepenthe restaurant. “The viability of businesses until September has everything to do with how well prepared they were financially when they went into this.

“Mother Nature is certainly humbling us in a dramatic way right now. You just have to focus on trying to control what you can control.”