Date:	Friday, October 18, 2024
District:	05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz Counties
Contact:	Kevin Drabinski or Genelle Padilla
Phone:	(805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3237

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPDATE #14

REPAIRS TO HIGHWAY 1 AT ROCKY CREEK TO INCLUDE ONE FULL OVERNIGHT CLOSURE

MONTEREY COUNTY – Caltrans will continue with emergency repairs to Highway 1 near the Rocky Creek Bridge, 12 miles south of Carmel. Caltrans previously stabilized and reinforced Highway 1 at this location after a March 30 slipout resulted in a loss of a section of the southbound lane.

Upcoming Repair Schedule

Crews have made substantial progress on a construction phase involving the drilling and casting of reinforced concrete columns to support the weight of the viaduct structure. For upcoming construction, travelers can expect one full overnight closure and intermittent daytime closures:

·       A full overnight closure of Hwy. 1 at Rocky Creek is scheduled for Thursday Oct. 24, from 10 pm to 6 am.

·       For the next two weeks, daytime travelers can expect intermittent delays of up to 20 minutes as crews bring equipment on site for continued excavation work.

Once construction of the southbound section of the Rocky Creek viaduct is complete, travel will be directed onto this southbound section and work will begin on construction of the northbound portion of the viaduct.

The estimate for completion of the Rocky Creek viaduct is summer 2025 and is dependent on conditions encountered during construction. The contractor for this project is Gordon N. Ball, Inc. of Alamo, CA.

Highway 1 remains closed 40 miles south of Carmel due to the Regent’s Slide. However, the vast majority of the Big Sur coast remains accessible and open.

Road information and updates can also be found on Caltrans District 5 Social Media platforms: X/Twitter at: @CaltransD5, Facebook at: Caltrans Central Coast (District 5) and Instagram at: Caltrans_D5.

Our crews deserve to get home safely too.

Drive slowly and carefully in work zones.

###

Kevin Drabinski

Public Information Officer

New study led by UC Santa Cruz also advances understanding of tectonic-plate dynamicsPeer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SANTA CRUZ

Along coastal California, the possibility of earthquakes and landslides are commonly prefaced by the phrase, “not if, but when.” This precarious reality is now a bit more predictable thanks to researchers at UC Santa Cruz and The University of Texas at Austin, who found that conditions known to cause slip along fault lines deep underground also lead to landslides above.

The new study, led by UC Santa Cruz geologist Noah Finnegan, used detailed data from two landslide sites in Northern California that researchers have identified and closely monitored for years. Finnegan and his co-author then applied a model originally developed to explain slow fault slip and eventually landed on a striking result: The model worked just as well for landslides as it did for faults.

For the rest of this article, see: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1061604