how the landslide at Big Sur hwy 1 is going so far... slow. Not going to be opened until next summer at the earliest

these images were recorded last week

if they were smart, they'd blow up the shoulders, extend some clear space at both sides of the slide area, and then push all the dirt to the coast, then put the new freeway in the middle of the coast to cliff cleared space. That would be the most they can probably afford to do to prevent a repeat of the narrowest part of Hwy 1 getting closed by another landslide.

But it turns out, that of course some eviromentalists already had a law passed that prevented such common sense logical solutions, and instead the half a mountain of material has to be moved offsite.

See, the 1983 landslide that happened here wasn't enough "learn from history or be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past" when it took a year to clear the only North South highway for hours of less time spent on the road. Nope, so they are going to pay twice to make this area passable. And this second time, it's costing double the amount to fix, instead of shoving it all towards the beach.

When you’re facing a “once in a lifetime” mudslide, it’s not a bad idea to hire John Madonna, son of Alex Madonna — whose name is on both the famed Madonna Inn and the Alex Madonna Memorial Highway in San Luis Obispo, a contractor who can call on two lifetimes’ worth of experience in road-building.

“It’s interesting to see how things have evolved,” he said. “Back in 1983 and ’84, they pushed 3 million cubic yards (of earth) into the ocean. It took nearly a year, and there were nearly 30 bulldozers pushing.”

There would be even more earth to move this time — 5 million cubic yards (or 8 million tons), Madonna said, so the process at Mud Creek would take even longer. That he only has 20 employees has a lot to do with the timeline also. But even if he wanted to, he couldn’t simply push all that earth into the ocean. The Coast Highway Management Plan adopted in 1998, which seeks to preserve the coastline, wouldn’t allow it.

The slide brought down “8 million tons in five minutes” May 20, Madonna said. Half of those 5 million cubic yards that rumbled down the mountain in May are sitting directly on top of the old highway, Madonna said, which helps explain why digging down to the old road isn’t a viable option. Caltrans has opted instead to build an entirely new road — Madonna said it will be 2,000 feet of asphalt — over the top of the body of the slide instead.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article173889766.html