| Date: | Monday, January 10, 2022 |
| District: | 05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz Counties |
| Contact: | Kevin Drabinski or Jim Shivers |
| Phone: | (805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3237 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HIGHWAY 1 IN NORTHERN SLO COUNTY SUBJECT TO
WEEKDAY ONE-HOUR DELAYS AT SITE OF STILL ACTIVE SLIDE THIS WEEK
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY – Continued efforts to remove slide material from above the roadway on Highway 1 in northern San Luis Obispo County will result in one-hour delays for travelers weekdays during daytime hours from Monday, Jan. 10 through Friday, Jan. 14 with traffic control in the immediate vicinity of the Polar Star slide, one mile south of Ragged Pont at Post Mile 71.8. Travelers will be subject to traffic control with up to one-hour delays from 7 am to 5 pm. The highway will be fully open on weekdays, without traffic control, from 5 pm to 7 am.
On weekends, Highway 1 will be fully open, without traffic control, from Friday at 5 pm until Monday at 7 am.
Crews with specialized equipment will remove remaining slide material from above the roadway. These weekday, one-hour traffic delays, are necessary for crews and equipment to dedicate the maximum amount of daylight hours to these efforts in advance of future weather events.
Message and directional signs will be in place to alert travelers in the area.
For traffic updates on other state highways in San Luis Obispo County, travelers may contact Caltrans District 5 Public Affairs at 805-549-3318 or can visit the District 5 website at: https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-5
If the job isn’t finished, that means that some “slide material” remains in place, possibly some that now lack the (obviously slight) buttressing effect of the departed material below, possibly held in place solely by friction. That is, how close is the remaining slide material to also failing. Lacking better knowledge, I believe I would avoid the road until the work is completed and certified safe by a licensed and registered engineer with special experience. The presence or absence of any groundwater and its influence on stability is unknown–by me at least.
dear Kate, are you perhaps aware of any schedule or rhythm being used when allowing traffic through ? as in is it at the top of the hour, the bottom of the hour or anything like that ? sure would be annoying to arrive 1 minute after they’d allowed vehicles through and have to wait a full hour !