California's Slow Walk of Repairing Highway 1 In Big Sur

[Quillz]

I've lived in California for just about 25 years, and it really seems to me that in the last decade or so, a lot more roads that are closed by slides and similar events are staying closed for a really long time. It isn't all Caltrans, either. In addition to Big Sur route 1, there's Nacimiento Ferguson Rd, there's Scotty's Castle Rd, Titus Canyon Rd, and Wildrose Rd in Death Valley, there's historic US-66 between Amboy and Fenner, there's Kings Canyon Rd, there's Angeles Crest Hwy, ... Most aren't critical roads, but it seemed like roads like that would be fixed, say, within a year, but now it's two or three.

It makes me wonder if the cost of repairing roads has grown much faster than inflation, perhaps due to environmental regs or union contracts, and so projects are languishing for lack of money.

It could be that, I'm sure that plays a role. It's also likely a case that doing the same thing over and over again is going to cause the same results. You can repair CA-1 along Big Sur like you always do, then the next rock slide happens and the road is closed again. So things are probably going slower because there might be different ideas being considered, new plans being enacted, etc.

And there are only so many resources. Obviously things like the Palisades Fire haven't helped, CA-27 had an unrelated rock slide a while back before the fires, Caltrans is probably being stretched quite a bit. And as I alluded to earlier, there's also the public pressure. Obviously they want the road open as soon as possible, but if it opens and then fails again, it'll just be a case of "why didn't they fix it properly?"

Another thing to consider is changes in driving patterns and just cars in general. A lot of the roads that have issues were roads built when the population was lower, the traffic patterns were different, and cars were generally lighter and not as wide. You can't really expect a road that might have been built in the 1930s to hold up all that well to modern traffic. And in many of these areas, you can't just expand them and add more lanes.

[DTComposer]

FWIW:

https://www.ksbw.com/article/closures-highway-1-in-big-sur-full-reopening/68005388

[Max Rockatansky]

I forgot to post about that myself.  Assuming the reopening goes as planned I might have to up my idea for a Monterey/Big Sur Meet to 2026 instead of 2027.