| Date: | Monday, April 1, 2024 |
| 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
UPDATE #3
CREWS CONTINUE TO ASSESS HIGHWAY 1 SLIPOUT NEAR ROCKY CREEK
FORECASTED RAIN MAY LEAD TO CANCELLATION OF CONVOYS
MONTEREY COUNTY– Caltrans engineers continue to assess a slip out of the roadway on Highway 1 just south of the Rocky Creek Bridge. The initial slip out and closure of the road took place on the afternoon of Saturday March 30.
Crews are continuing to gather information at the site which will inform next steps to stabilize the edge of the roadway and design a permanent repair. In the next several days crews will place 500 feet of concrete barriers along the centerline of the roadway. This will help define a channel for convoy vehicles to pass through and will provide protection for workers working on repairs.
Convoys are scheduled in the north and southbound directions through the repair site at 8 am and 4 pm daily. These convoys are operating under close supervision by engineers at the site. As announced earlier, convoys will be cancelled due to any observed change in site conditions and due to wet weather.
The forecast or the Big Sur coast calls for possible rain in the coming days. An update will be provided should there be a need to cancel convoys later this week.
Updates on the status of the closure of Highway 1 at the Rocky Creek Bridge will be provided as more information becomes available.
Road information and updates can also be found on Caltrans District 5 Social Media platforms: Twitter at: @CaltransD5, Facebook at: Caltrans Central Coast (District 5) and Instagram at: Caltrans_D5.
. . . convoys will be cancelled due to any observed change in site conditions . . .
Again, I’m sure that CalTrans knows a lot more that I do, but since it appears that much remains to be known about the site conditions, upon what technical analysis is the decision based to “convoy” residents within a few feet of what appears to be a near-vertical scarp under the pavement or at its edge? Can’t CalTrans reveal the state of the underlying geology and whether or not the failure was initiated by or at the hinge point of an original cut and fill construction of the subgrade? Does the present edge of the pavement/point of failure approximate or define the original cut/fill boundary? Was there a failure of formational materials as well, or did it consist of known/emplaced unconsolidated materials beyond those used for a final leveling course? Was substantially no fill part of the subgrade of the portion of the roadway that failed? If the subgrade consisted primarily of competent formational materials, what factors can reasonably be posited to be involved, and how do what is known and unknown presently stack up against each other?
Is the observation–by engineers–of land movement or other changes (e.g., the appearance of free/gravitational water) to site conditions the only technical trigger for stopping a convoy? Under the current known circumstances, is any risk of a sudden change site conditions negligible and sufficient to be consider the convoy operation decision reasonably safe? Or are such decision to be made based on “the extensive experience and knowledge of experts”?
Won’t the added weight of concrete barriers add stress to the already vulnerable site?!
Great point Victoria. And Wayne, you are seeing in real time, what we on the North Coast have been dealing with with regard to CalTrans. CalTrans cannot be trusted to give straight answers. You might be interested in our website to see what I’m talking about: https://savehighway1.org/
It appears that the rocky bulge that used to be between the two slip out gullies failed. The rock retaining walls that top those two older slipouts remain intact. So, failure of the admittedly poor rock underlaying the road rather than failure of a retaining wall or fill. So similar to many other slope failures that have gnawed vertical drops right next to roads in regular use.
Wow you all need to chill out, are you trying to make more issues then there is? Or use your extreme conscience to make more problems then there is. Think about the real problems like the high schoolers that can’t be there for there games or music lessons. Arm chair hero’s you are. Your engineering sucks.
Vicki, if that relatively little weight has any potential for triggering another event, I wouldn’t put feather pillows on such a site. What so many folks don’t think about is the fact that failures are almost always context-dependent.
all driving is risky…every intersection, other drivers, mechanical failures, lack of attention……choices we make, or do not make, every day…..my guess is it is reasonably safe to drive the northern lane in convoys, if Caltrans thinks so…..no one is being forced to drive there, take the risk if you want to, or don’t….there are never any guarantees in life…
Wayne, you answered your own question with “I’m sure Caltrans knows more than I do.”
That much is correct.