SPECIAL REPORT: Mud Creek seven months later, crews carve out path for future road

For Central Coast residents living near Highway 1, 2017 was hard.

An exceptionally wet winter lifted the state from a historic five-year drought. The mess it left behind was also of historic proportions.

Exhibit A, massive landslides in Mud Creek just south of Big Sur.

“I’ve worked on some of the large recent slides, Elder Creek, that’s in 2011. In comparison, it was maybe less than 10 percent of this very large slide. Overwhelmed, I’d say. The biggest slide I’ve ever been on,” said Ryan Turner, engineer with California Department of Transportation.

Now, a few rocks still roll down the hills occasionally. But back in May, it was millions of tons crashing down, burying almost half a mile of the scenic highway.

Crews have carved out a path, which will eventually be the road.

“Based on our progress so far, the anticipated project features, and how long we think it will take to construct those, we are hopeful that sometime around the end of summer, late summer, we will have a road here,” Turner said.

Until then, Tommy Mara, who works at a Gorda convenience store just outside of the construction zone, will have to keep turning visitors away.

“Saturday you could easily get 50 people wanting to get back, wanting to go to L.A. or Santa Barbara, Cambria, which is down there 25 miles but you got to go 190 (miles),” Mara said.

Even after the $40 million project wraps, crews can’t just walk away.

“This is going to be a new highway constructed across all new materials and new slopes, so future maintenance is a part of our plan out here,” Turner said.

And if the monitor network detects slide activities, Turner said crews might close the road in the future.