Huge Mud Slide 5/21/17 Big Sur

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TomInPA

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An immense landslide near Big Sur has changed the shape of the coastline and closed Hwy 1 indefinitely. Hwy 1 was already closed for the bridge repair, but this one is going to take a while. The slide is still active and moving. I'm not close to this, but if anyone has plans for Hwy 1, it looks like, not this year.



San Jose Mercury News:

Big Sur – Caltrans said Monday its unclear how long Highway 1 in southern Big Sur will remain closed after a landslide covering between a quarter and a half mile brought millions of cubic yards of dirt and rock down the hillside at Mud Creek on Saturday.

According to Caltrans spokeswoman Susana Cruz, there are five active landslides in the area, which is about 9 miles north of the southern Monterey County border. It’s believed four of the slides came down together at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Springs in the area keep the soil muddy, she said.

“There was so much saturation and so much weight,” Cruz said.

Kirk Gafill, president of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce and Nepenthe Restaurant’s owner and general manager, grew up in Big Sur. Gafill, 55, said the only landslide in the area he can remember that was as big as the one at Mud Creek was in 1983 just north of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

“That location was closed for 14 months,” he said.

Both Gafill and Cruz said it would be conjecture to say how long Highway 1 will remain closed this time.

Gafill’s grandparents founded Nepenthe. He said it can be hard to compare the scale of the two events, but the Mud Creek slide was one of the largest in his lifetime along the Big Sur coast.

“If it’s not the biggest, it’s certainly right up there,” he said.

Cruz said the Mud Creek slide is the biggest she can remember since joining Caltrans in 2001. She said a slide near Mud Creek at Duck Pond during the El Niño winter of 1998 caused major damage.

Caltrans closed Highway 1 at Ragged Point, near the county border, months ago because of the landslides at Mud Creek.

The slide activity at Mud Creek started back in January and hasn’t relented all year. Cruz said the road and the hillside were at a steep angle. Highway 1 had already been down to only a partial lane before the slide. She said the remaining part of the road was likely wiped out by the slide and Caltrans says the road bed is covered in 35-40 feet of rock and dirt.

“We have no idea how to assess it right now until it stops moving,” she said. “So we have no idea on a time frame (of when the highway will reopen).”

Gafill joked that perhaps they were being semi-delusional, but the slide brought about hope among some of the residents and business owners in Big Sur.

“One big slide took out all those smaller slides,” he said. “So if that has the effect of creating the possibility that stability for that area may be restored if the pressure on it kind of pushed out all of that excess material.”

He said he’s hopeful that the slide ended the waiting game as Caltrans waited for stability in the hillside before taking action to restore Highway 1.

“So I guess the question is, ‘How quickly does this stabilize?’” Gafill said.

Gafill said the Highway 1 closure at Mud Creek, along with the closures at Big Sur Station and Paul’s Slide remain huge impediments to businesses in the area. The Big Sur Station closure should remain until September, when the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge replacement reconnects the two segments of Big Sur. While residents have been allowed limited access through Paul’s Slide, Caltrans may cancel the access windows depending on safety as it did Monday. The targeted public access date had been mid-June, but Caltrans now says it will reassess the date after recent landslides.

Cruz said work stopped at Paul’s Slide on Monday because of slide movement and work will be halted Tuesday.

“At (Paul’s Slide) it doesn’t seem as perilous (as Mud Creek),” she said. “But it has been a little bit active so we need to take that precaution.”

 
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Everyone was optimistic about the duration of the closure due to the bridge outage. This is a major sismic event and won't "buff out".

The coast is beautiful and worth seeing. It is currently not a thorougfare unfortunately.

 
The slide appears to be just north of Nacimiento Ferguson Road. You can see it as the fly-by heads south. A near miss.

 
The slide appears to be just north of Nacimiento Ferguson Road. You can see it as the fly-by heads south. A near miss.
Thankfully not as Kirk Creek Campground (nice scenic overlook) is just across the street from the Nacimento-Ferguson Road. The Mud Creek slide is actually about 9 miles south (as the crow flies) of the Kirk Creek Campground or about a mile south of the little hamlet of Gorda. Still a bummer, that highway seems to be snake bit this year with closures.

 
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Gorda, the town with the highest gasoline prices in the continental U.S. I wonder if they are even open?

 
Soooooooooooo ..... this appears to have created new land, that is, there is now a bit of brand-new oceanfront property along Highway 1. Who owns this property? The state?

If it was my back yard that slid into the ocean, I'd hire an attorney yesterday to file a claim that it was my dirt, so it still is my dirt, and I'd hire a real estate agent to sell it for $4 million.

(PS: TominPA/CA, please don't be offended; my mind works in silly ways sometimes, and this type of jumpoff happens occasionally.)

 
No worries Hud! While there is very little private ownership along that stretch, I'm sure your proposed sale should be right on par with swamp land in Florida.

 
Always looking for the bright side, I was thinking "at least the guys coming to YFO and wanting to see the coast won't be disappointed." :)

Since with the bridge out, you wouldn't have been able to go much farther than this slide anyway. :(

 
Always looking for the bright side, I was thinking "at least the guys coming to YFO and wanting to see the coast won't be disappointed." :)
Since with the bridge out, you wouldn't have been able to go much farther than this slide anyway. :(
Yes, but the case can be made that the roundtrip on Namicento-Ferguson road to enjoy the view at Kirk Creek is worth the time. Might be a bit more traffic than usual, but then again, it now truly is the "road to nowhere".

 
Whoa! That's one huge chuck of dirt.

You know us Zonies are always speculating about when we are going to have beach front property, but honestly it just a joke.

California should keep their dirt, and put it back were it belongs.

 
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Gorda, the town with the highest gasoline prices in the continental U.S. I wonder if they are even open?
Hah! I miscalculated once and was forced to buy a couple of gallons at that gas station. I literally laughed out loud when I saw the posted price. That's one place in Big Sur I don't feel sorry for.

 
I once took a pic of the gas pump there--I swear it was over eight bucks a gallon. And I didn't even get a kiss. :(

@CAJW--do you know if Naciemiento-Ferguson is open now? (Or does anybody?) People were saying here it was closed from slides just a while back.

 
I once took a pic of the gas pump there--I swear it was over eight bucks a gallon. And I didn't even get a kiss. :(
@CAJW--do you know if Naciemiento-Ferguson is open now? (Or does anybody?) People were saying here it was closed from slides just a while back.
Mike, I don't know personally if it is open, but according to this webpage, N-F Road is open. The page doesn't show a publish date, but has the May 21 mud slide noted, so I'm betting it's current info. If you're into bridges being destroyed (who isn't?), check out the video of the Pfeiffer bridge demo.
https://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/highway_conditions.html

 
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CAJW posted: ...... If you're into bridges being destroyed (who isn't?), check out the video of the Pfeiffer bridge demo.
Wow! Very Cool! But Caltrans just let it fall into the canyon? How environmentally insensitive!

 
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