Événement

Can Highway 1 Be Put Back Together? -- John Duffy

It has been nine months since a massive landslide unleashed 5 million cubic yards of rocks and dirt upon Big Sur's Highway 1, shutting down a major thoroughfare on which millions travel each year.

The $40 million project remains under construction, even as the earth under the workers continues to settle, half a year after the slide that was so big, it could be seen from space.

The Mud Creek area of Highway 1 has been closed for nine months, and drivers have been forced to use a detour route that isn't along the coast. Officials are hopeful that the road will be reopened by the end of this coming summer, and they continue to reconstruct the highway on top of the slide.

The landslide pushed 15 acres' worth of mud and rocks over the highway and into the sea, creating what is essentially a new shoreline. But as erosion eats away at the additional land along the shore, known as the "toe," engineers are fully aware that continued erosion could yield major problems for the reconstruction project.

Your instructor, consulting geologist for the Caltrans work John Duffy, will explain the challenge, design and planning for the restoration of Route 1. He will explain the geology of the Big Sur coast and how the restored highway will adapt to existing and potential slides. The explanation will include how the assessment was done, how the slide was investigated and how calculations were made to get it accomplished.

John Duffy is a consulting geologist with Yeh and Associates. He is an engineering geologist with specialized expertise in landslide management and rockfall hazard mitigation. John is also an avid surfer. Yeh and Associates is a geotechnical engineering and construction management company with offices in Colorado and California. They are consultants to Caltrans for the restoration of Route 1 at the Mud Creek landslide