The weekend slide in Big Sur buried a portion of Highway 1 under a 40-foot layer of rock and dirt and changed the coastline below to include what now looks like a rounded skirt hem, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Transportation, said Tuesday.
The state already had closed the Highway 1 along Mud Creek to repair buckled pavement and remove debris after an earlier slide triggered by one of California's rainiest winters in decades. Authorities removed work crews from the area last week after realizing that saturated soil in that area was increasingly unstable.
"There's no question if you live and own a business in Big Sur, you live in a very dramatic landscape and we know historically, whether it's fire or a mudslide or a landslide from one year to the next it's not very predictable," said the President of the Chamber of Commerce.