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Highway 1 through Big Sur to reopen after years of work
Slope stabilization work at the Regent's Slide area.
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Caltrans
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Topline:
Come next spring, a road trip up to Big Sur should be a little easier for SoCal residents. That’s because Caltrans now says crews are aiming to have Highway 1 fully reopened through the Regent’s Slide area by the end of March 2026.
What happened? Two back-to-back landslides — the Paul Slide and the Regent’s Slide — have kept a portion of the road above the Big Sur coastline closed since January 2023.
Remote control excavators: Kevin Drabinski, a spokesperson with Caltrans District 5, said crews have faced big challenges clearing more than 300,000 cubic yards of material. “We were faced with this, literally a crack in the ground, that we could not bring bodies across,” Drabinski said. Workers were able to use remote-controlled excavators and bulldozers to make progress.
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It’s not all closed: Roughly 7 miles between the Esalen Institute in the north and the Lucia Lodge in the south remain closed, but there’s still about 100 miles of smooth Highway 1 driving between Cambria and Carmel.
Setbacks? Caltrans officials caution that further slide activity and bad weather could “impact the estimated reopening timeline.”
Go deeper... on why Highway 1 in Big Sur keeps slipping into the ocean.
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