There is some good aerial footage provided by Caltrans on this news report by Felix Cortez of KSBW: https://www.ksbw.com/article/highway-1-reopening-brings-big-sur-businesses/65452677

For a similar report from KSBY in San Luis Obispo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRzXJfKk9C4

This is a good summary of the meeting Caltrans had with local business owners as summarized by Kirk Gafill:

Secretary Omishakin announced that Caltrans anticipates being able to provide a timeline/time frame for re-opening the highway by mid-September of this year.  Further, the Secretary made absolutely clear that the state and governor were “all in” on clearing this slide and re-opening the highway safely and at the earliest opportunity.  This commitment was something that the Secretary was informed had not been clearly reflected in the media or in public statements by the state and he and VisitCA team appeared to appreciate importance of including that critical commitment in outreach going forward to hopefully offset the persistent negative publicity by the national and regional media that often has raised issue of whether it is worth re-opening the highway or was keeping it open sustainable.

Safety was a key topic repeatedly referenced throughout all of the briefing and subsequent discussions generally and specific to this project due to the unique and complex site conditions that require line of sight visibility for spotters each working period (goal is to be working every daylight hour as conditions permit), in conjunction with drone, and remote sensor monitoring for slide movement.  Thus, coastal fog has been a delaying factor in this phase of the project, though yesterday’s weather was clear.

The mid-September update is based on estimated time to bring current work area 100′ down the slide face to the level of the rocky outcropping where the original work area was for the original lower slide last August.  Once at rocky outcropping, Caltrans team expressed confidence that they will then be working in a geological formation that they are very familiar with and once they are successful in clearing that formation, they then have 350′ further to get down to the highway level.  This last 350′ though is anticipated to be a “scaling” operation rather than a major excavation operation, which should allow for a faster completion rate and metal netting will be draped and affixed to the slide face from the rocky outcropping section down to the highway level to protect workers below and future rock/material impacts on the highway after re-opening (there are numerous examples on the Big Sur Coast and this has proved to be a successful preventative effort on other slide areas, such as Alder Springs).

Excavation has resumed for the first time in approx. 2 months.

Shear dowels to stabilize slope above work area strategy is working well and has essentially been completed down to current work level and will continue concurrently with excavation.  Based on descriptions of the past challenges of having to pull workers and equipment off the slide due to variable and persistent upper slide activity (sometimes as a result of the work involved to clear the slide), this comprehensive approach of installing shear dowels appears to be very successful in stabilizing slopes above work areas.

Contractor lead who has significant experience on multiple Big Sur coastal slide and highway repair projects and on-site Caltrans engineers were optimistic that once they got to highway level (150` above sea level), that there was a reasonably good chance, based on past slides, that highway road bed could be in good shape and that repaving/re-opening highway at that point could be done quickly (i.e. within a week per contractor).

Clearly, based on the past experience with this slide it is  premature to be unduly optimistic or to project with any confidence a re-opening time right now, but I found that in speaking with many of the geotech and engineering leads a high level of confidence that the shear dowel strategy is proving itself and that this project can now move forward (keep fingers crossed for limited fog this summer)  with hopefully far fewer and more limited non-weather related delays.

And from the History Channel, the history of the construction of Highway One, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRzXJfKk9C4. Some fascinating original black and white photos of the building of the road.

• Originally, I had written Mid-August per the KSBW, Felix Cortez’ story, but what Caltrans actually said was Mid-September, and so I changed it to avoid confusion. He also said he did not see it opening in the foreseeable future.