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Part of Highway 1 Collapses Toward Sea

Pacific Coast Highway closed for at least a month during busy tourist season

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 18, 2011 11:31 AM CDT

(Newser) – Huge quantities of rock and dirt tumbled from a Big Sur cliff on Wednesday, collapsing a 40-foot stretch of California's Highway 1 toward the ocean. A 2-mile section of the Pacific Coast Highway will likely be impassable for at least a month, the Monterey Herald reports. “We don't want to take any chances,” says an official. Meanwhile, crews have built water diversions to protect the damaged roadway in anticipation of another rainy week.

The collapse followed heavy rains, and locals had noticed a crack in the road, “but nobody anticipated it was going to do this,” says one resident. Businesses fear the closure could hit hard during the tourist season. “There is too much going down here to allow an extended closure,” notes a hotel boss, adding that this is "the beginning of our season, the first good hit after the winter for all of us.” Click through for pictures that show Highway 1's collapse into the ocean.

The Pacific Coast Highway, Big Sur.
The Pacific Coast Highway, Big Sur.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
nantsy3
Mar 19, 2011 12:26 PM CDT
Scary crap going on in the world right now. Too many signs.
Jes
Mar 18, 2011 9:34 PM CDT
Son of a bitch. I'm going to California for the first time in just a few days and we were supposed to drive on highway 1...
tran_tor
Mar 18, 2011 3:18 PM CDT
Beautiful stretch of highway. Definitely something to experience. I'd recommend going south on it and switching drivers from time to time, camping on the way down. Not unheard of in California though, with it's many mountain roads and sandy soil.

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