US: Landslide Shuts Famed Californian Highway 1 as Big Chunk Falls Into The Sea

The Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:51 UTC

It is the most scenic highway in America, but a big chunk of California's Highway 1 has fallen into the sea after a landslide.

Stunned drivers watched as a forty-foot section tumbled into the Pacific below after several days of rain.

The landslide, at 5pm on Wednesday, happened 12 miles from Carmel. A two-mile stretch is now closed for repairs which are expected to take several days.

© Associated Press
Closed: Engineers and safety officials inspect the damage. The highway is expected to be shut for several days.

Despite being new asphalt, all of the southbound lane is now gone, and the soil under the northbound lane also is giving way.

The California Highway Patrol closed the lane at Palo Colorado Road and drivers going north were stopped at the Bixby Creek Bridge.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the slide. A CHP dispatcher said: 'Nobody went down, no people got hurt.'

State transportation workers are now scrambling to make repairs. It's not immediately clear what caused the slide or how long the highway will be closed.

Reader Comments

Woodsman · 2011-03-18T22:42:06Z

Reminds me of. . .

When I played in a sandbox as a kid, I'd sometimes play this weird little game that I just remembered. . .

Fascinated by Godzilla movies, I'd bury my hand under a mound of sand and pretend that careless miners had awoken some long-forgotten beast. I'd shift my fingers barely at all as it stirred, and little ripples of sand which looked a lot like the pictures in this article would tumble away. To begin with, the miners would attribute these small signs to harmless natural events.

I think the fact that this story is being carried by a paper in the U.K., however, indicates that some people are watching with more than just passing interest.