Crews clean up Big Sur rock slide

Transportation officials believe the rock slide on Friday afternoon was the result of ongoing rains that are saturating the hillside, causing debris to fall.

“We were getting some large debris falling off the rock slope here, a lot of mud and dirt,” said Greg DeAlba Jr., Caltrans maintenance supervisor for Willow Springs and Big Sur.

Rocks were falling so bad Caltrans had to shut down about three miles of Hwy 1.

“It started to fall a lot more frequent when nightfall hit,” said DeAlba. “So we made a determination that it was for the safety of everybody else that it needed to be closed.

It was bad news for some businesses.

“We’re definitely impacted when we don’t get that south flow of traffic,” said Sarah Loveland, Phoenix Shop assistant manager.

Tourists had mixed emotions.

“It’s life or death,” said Charise Frias, of Orange County, California. “If they have rocks falling on us then they should block off the road.”

Caltrans said crews collected at least 10 large dumptrucks full of rocks while cleaningup the slide near Partington Cove.

“We’re going to continue to monitor it the rest of the day as well as get rid of the material that we’ve already removed,” said DeAlba.

Caltrans said the slide is only the beginning of what’s to come.

“The impending El Nino,” said DeAlba. “We’re expecting a lot of rainfall and so we’ve done everything we can to prepare for it.”

With another potential storm on the horizon this weekend, “There definitely will probably be some closures if it does continue to fall,” said DeAlba.

“I hope it doesn’t stop us from going where we want to go,” said Frias.

Caltrans is asking motoriststo drive safely, pay attention to what’s in front of them and give crews plenty of space when they see them plowing.