California restoration news for summer

Highway 1 from San Simeon to Carmel through Big Sur will reopen in July, earlier than predicted. Repairs on road damage from a massive landslide have been completed ahead of schedule..
The giant sequoia Mariposa Grove at the southern gate to Yosemite National Park, will reopen after years of repair and restoration to the ground beneath the immense trees.

[emphasis as in original]

Date: June 12, 2018
District: District 5 (Central Coast)
Contact: susana.cruz (bilingual) or jim.shivers
Phone: (805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3237

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UPDATE
Caltrans Continues Efforts to Rebuild and Reopen Highway 1 at Mud Creek
New Estimated Opening Slated for end of July

BIG SUR, MONTEREY COUNTY – As Caltrans continues efforts to rebuild and re-open Highway 1 at Mud Creek, the department has announced a new target date of the end of July for opening the route to all travelers.

Department officials announced last August that a new ¼-mile roadway will traverse the site of the massive Mud Creek landslide.

The new roadway will be realigned across the landslide and will be buttressed with a series of embankments, berms, rocks, netting, culverts and other stabilizing material according to department engineers and geologists. This strategy is allowing Caltrans to rebuild the roadway more quickly and at a lower cost than other alternatives such as structures, a tunnel or major earthwork that puts additional fill into the ocean.

“Rebuilding Highway 1 and restoring traffic along the Big Sur coast has been our priority and by opening the highway sooner than expected, it will boost the many central coast communities affected by this major landslide,” said Caltrans Acting District 5 Director Richard Rosales.

The massive slide occurred on May 20, 2017, dumping more than 6 million cubic yards of material onto the roadway and into the ocean, creating 15 additional acres of coastline, making it the largest one ever along the Big Sur coast.

Caltrans engineers have been working closely with contractor John Madonna to increase rebuild productivity, so this combined with favorable weather and longer days will allow us to open the road sooner than our previous mid-September estimate.

Caltrans is continuously evaluating the opening date as roadwork progresses so we anticipate providing a final update by early July. It’s expected that after the highway opens, intermittent weekday lane closures and roadwork will continue for several months to finalize repairs.

News about the Mariposa Grove Opens June 15. Note that access is going to be restricted.

Doggone it, @pacificgroove , you scooped me!!

Hah! I expected you would have been on top of these, as you reliably are, and thank you for that.
I thought you might be busy or distracted today or on an expedition to Outer Mongolia.

This is great news for a nice Highway 1 roadtrip at the end of the summer, thanks

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