California’s scenic Pacific Coast Highway will re-open a section near Big Sur in July, two months ahead of schedule. It’s been closed since a massive landslide destroyed part of the road just over a year ago.
The repair plan involved building a huge rock seawall at the base of the slide to keep it from sliding more, and then building a new roadway on top of the slide. The method was chosen over more expensive and slower alternatives such as a tunnel.
The highway, considered one of the world’s most scenic, hugs the coast of California for over 650 miles. In recent years, it has had a number of disruptions caused by landslides and earthquakes; the newly-restored section is only 25 miles from where a new bridge recently replaced one destroyed by a slide in early 2017
