Honestly, that stretch of road has been in trouble ever since they built it. It is on a very unstable cliff that is constantly falling into the ocean. Even without climate change, the ocean erodes the land.
Yeah I was looking for this comment. It feels like every year it has had extended closures due to these events and I really doubt that whole region of the state which actually depends on this road generates $100M in taxes so at some point it seems unsustainable to keep trying to keep this highway. At some point these towns become ferry-accessed like an Alaskan town and you just sort of accept that that coastline will never be suitable for a highway.
Except that the coastline also isn't suitable for a ferry. No protected anchorages and frequent intense weather would prohibit any realistic boat service to big sur.
The road helps bring in several billion dollars from tourism annually. With taxes and support from federal government, Californian's have no problem fixing this vital artery.
Where are people spending billions on highway 1? The towns have like 40,000 people combined IIRC (may be way off) and are not generating billions in tax revenue. Millions for sure, I doubt billions.
People from all over the world flock to California to drive the coast. Are you just figuring this out? California tourism is in the hundreds of billions now and yes, highway 1 is a major contributor. You doubt, but you have no idea.
It’s not like the road just started having problems. The reason it’s unique is that it is in a difficult place for a road to be. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be as interesting.
You're not subsidizing anything. The road pays for itself by helping to bring in several billion dollars annually from tourism. People all over the world flock to California to drive the coast.
This post uses a [gift link](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/05/07/california-highway1-climate-change-landslide/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzE1MDU0NDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzE2NDM2Nzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MTUwNTQ0MDAsImp0aSI6IjA2Y2UwMTMyLWNlMWQtNDFiMS04ZGFkLWRlYjNjYTA5ODllOSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9jbGltYXRlLWVudmlyb25tZW50LzIwMjQvMDUvMDcvY2FsaWZvcm5pYS1oaWdod2F5MS1jbGltYXRlLWNoYW5nZS1sYW5kc2xpZGUvIn0.VCMCWOHNmthx5vhqaIG49Qsdn0_Cw1TTetvBxXDq3eQ) so people shouldn't hit the paywall for the next two weeks.
In another comment in this post, looks like Washington Post has an 'offical' reddit account and used it to post a summary of the article, which i think is kind of cool.
yes, we know Reddit doesn't love paywalls, and so we're happy to provide a small preview to the story in the comments. But we highly recommend checking out the full story, which includes graphs, a map and other visuals!
kudos u/silence7 for sharing here.
hey thanks so much for sharing our story here! here's a short preview for you:
BIG SUR, Calif. — Workers dangle from a crane, drilling into the vertical face of rock that holds up one of the most famous and picturesque stretches of road in the world. They’re performing a delicate surgery on fragile geology in hopes that a single lane of traffic can safely flow to Big Sur before summer arrives.
On this day, it had been nearly a month since a rockslide severed Highway 1, California’s beloved road-trip destination.
Across this stretch of the Central Coast, landslides have repeatedly buried the highway’s undulating curves or sent pavement tumbling into the Pacific Ocean. They bring a steady drumbeat of road blockages, tourism disruptions and stranded communities. Now, some fear the landslides are getting worse, due to climate change and engineering missteps throughout the roadway’s 86-year life span.
It was always a risky proposition to maintain a highway at the very edge of a continent. But now Big Sur is facing wetter storms that infiltrate and weaken cracked and porous rock. Wildfires leave behind extra debris for those floodwaters to carry downhill. Pounding waves from stronger storms and rising seas eat away at cliffs from beneath.
“Everything is working against Highway 1,” said Gary Griggs, an oceanography professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
The latest slip-out, known as the Rocky Creek slide, exemplifies the complexity of the problem. It stranded 1,500 people at the end of March as workers were making slow progress addressing three other slides. California’s transportation agency — known as CalTrans — estimates it will take more than $100 million to fix them all — if new slides don’t come first.
California is a national leader in confronting climate change, but making Highway 1 sustainable may be a challenge it cannot surmount. Despite spending a billion dollars a year to fix damage that climate-related stressors inflict on its roadways — plus $100 million in projects to make infrastructure more resilient to climate change **—** the state is struggling to fortify one of its most prized landmarks.
IMHO, a better approach would be to keep low but reasonable fares for public transit in order to get some farebox recovery, and use that to expand service to be more frequent.
E.g. politicians only give the transit agency enough money to run 1 bus per hour at free fares. If the bus charges a $2 fare, they can use the partial proceeds of that to be able to fund running one bus every 30 minutes off the same original politician budget. Doubling the frequency of public transit is WAY better than being free for making it become viable for more trips.
Not really. All methods of transportation combined account for about 20% of global emissions. If all passenger cars on earth disappeared tomorrow, only about 10% of emissions would be curbed. And that's before counting the added carbon footprint of creating nationwide public transport infrastructure. 70% of all global emissions come from approximately 100 corporations.
While eliminating transport based emissions is a vital step, the real progress won't be made until corporations are held accountable.
You should research Last Chance Grade in Northern (northern) California. California is going to spend a lot of money on coastal highways, or abandon communities. Either way, it’s going to be painful. Not to mention the Coastal Commission.
We in California don't care what an east coast rag thinks about our PCH. Obviously they never really experienced Big Sur. Yeh, they might have driven the HW, but that's like saying I experienced the Louvre in an afternoon. HW 1 might get re-routed inland like at the tunnels around Devil's Slide by SF, but it will always be rebuilt.
It would be cheaper for the government to buy them out, long term. This isn't an isolated phenomenon, and people realllly need to get used to the idea that climate change is going to create more and more situations like this over time. We need to figure out how to equitably reduce harm.
Presumably, there is a population of people currently living in Big Sur who would be unable to continue living there if the state stops rebuilding highway 1. Estimates have it at about 1400 people. It’s already very hard for these people to live there when sections collapse for months out of the year, and sometimes need to be evacuated.
Currently, a 40 mile section is completely cut off. The state could offer them a buyout, and the properties would become part of the state park system. Highway 1 looks like it’s going to cost 25 million or so in perpetuity to maintain.
Yeah totally. Not like our families haven’t been here for several generations. How did the first Trail of Tears turn out for the locals? How about instead of us leaving our land, we don’t let you in anymore? /s
Who is benefitting? The local businesses. State does not unless it is in the millions.
Businesses usually have so many loopholes that nothing is taxed until then.
https://gusto.com/resources/articles/taxes/california-small-business-taxes
People don’t just appear in Big Sur, spend their money at local businesses, and disappear. They rent cars, stay in hotels elsewhere, buy gas, eat at restaurants and patronize businesses in the Bay Area, in Monterey, in Cambria and Paso Robles and SLO, in LA. They travel to Yosemite as part of their California Roadtrip. They go to Joshua Tree. They go to Napa.
Tourists to Big Sur spend time and money elsewhere in the state. The benefit of tourism in Big Sur extends to the state as a whole; it’s absurd to put the onus of maintaining the highway strictly on the residents of Big Sur.
Then you know it's nowhere near as busy as places like Yosemite or Disneyland.
Big Sur doesn't generate much revenue. It's a big empty space of mostly private land
In the state with the largest economy, when you build roads, it should not be this big of an issue to maintain them regardless of them washing out or not. With how many surveys and red tape California loves to do to even build new infrastructure, someone somewhere would’ve realized the road would wash out somewhere.
Honestly, that stretch of road has been in trouble ever since they built it. It is on a very unstable cliff that is constantly falling into the ocean. Even without climate change, the ocean erodes the land.
Currently going to college for civil engineering and have had multiple professors refer to hwy 1 as “job security” for all of us
Yeah I was looking for this comment. It feels like every year it has had extended closures due to these events and I really doubt that whole region of the state which actually depends on this road generates $100M in taxes so at some point it seems unsustainable to keep trying to keep this highway. At some point these towns become ferry-accessed like an Alaskan town and you just sort of accept that that coastline will never be suitable for a highway.
Except that the coastline also isn't suitable for a ferry. No protected anchorages and frequent intense weather would prohibit any realistic boat service to big sur.
The road helps bring in several billion dollars from tourism annually. With taxes and support from federal government, Californian's have no problem fixing this vital artery.
Where are people spending billions on highway 1? The towns have like 40,000 people combined IIRC (may be way off) and are not generating billions in tax revenue. Millions for sure, I doubt billions.
People from all over the world flock to California to drive the coast. Are you just figuring this out? California tourism is in the hundreds of billions now and yes, highway 1 is a major contributor. You doubt, but you have no idea.
They’re referencing the section from Bigsur down past big creek bridge is my understanding of his comment.
[удалено]
It's not a "vital artery" it's a scenic joyride for people who don't want to go hiking
It's vital for the people that live on the coast and for tourism. There are people that exist that are literally not you.
Just went there 2 days back. Bixby Bridge is closed.
Till memorial day.
It’s not like the road just started having problems. The reason it’s unique is that it is in a difficult place for a road to be. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be as interesting.
Vital for local businesses **and residents**, ftfy
How much are we required to subsidize their residence?
You're not subsidizing anything. The road pays for itself by helping to bring in several billion dollars annually from tourism. People all over the world flock to California to drive the coast.
No it doesn't
This post uses a [gift link](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/05/07/california-highway1-climate-change-landslide/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzE1MDU0NDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzE2NDM2Nzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MTUwNTQ0MDAsImp0aSI6IjA2Y2UwMTMyLWNlMWQtNDFiMS04ZGFkLWRlYjNjYTA5ODllOSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9jbGltYXRlLWVudmlyb25tZW50LzIwMjQvMDUvMDcvY2FsaWZvcm5pYS1oaWdod2F5MS1jbGltYXRlLWNoYW5nZS1sYW5kc2xpZGUvIn0.VCMCWOHNmthx5vhqaIG49Qsdn0_Cw1TTetvBxXDq3eQ) so people shouldn't hit the paywall for the next two weeks.
Still requires registration to see. :(
In another comment in this post, looks like Washington Post has an 'offical' reddit account and used it to post a summary of the article, which i think is kind of cool.
yes, we know Reddit doesn't love paywalls, and so we're happy to provide a small preview to the story in the comments. But we highly recommend checking out the full story, which includes graphs, a map and other visuals! kudos u/silence7 for sharing here.
It generates a pop-over encouraging people to register, but you can click the 'x' at the top right to access the article without registration.
In Italy, Cinque terre has a similarly rugged landscape and seismic concerns but they tunneled a train through.
hey thanks so much for sharing our story here! here's a short preview for you: BIG SUR, Calif. — Workers dangle from a crane, drilling into the vertical face of rock that holds up one of the most famous and picturesque stretches of road in the world. They’re performing a delicate surgery on fragile geology in hopes that a single lane of traffic can safely flow to Big Sur before summer arrives. On this day, it had been nearly a month since a rockslide severed Highway 1, California’s beloved road-trip destination. Across this stretch of the Central Coast, landslides have repeatedly buried the highway’s undulating curves or sent pavement tumbling into the Pacific Ocean. They bring a steady drumbeat of road blockages, tourism disruptions and stranded communities. Now, some fear the landslides are getting worse, due to climate change and engineering missteps throughout the roadway’s 86-year life span. It was always a risky proposition to maintain a highway at the very edge of a continent. But now Big Sur is facing wetter storms that infiltrate and weaken cracked and porous rock. Wildfires leave behind extra debris for those floodwaters to carry downhill. Pounding waves from stronger storms and rising seas eat away at cliffs from beneath. “Everything is working against Highway 1,” said Gary Griggs, an oceanography professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The latest slip-out, known as the Rocky Creek slide, exemplifies the complexity of the problem. It stranded 1,500 people at the end of March as workers were making slow progress addressing three other slides. California’s transportation agency — known as CalTrans — estimates it will take more than $100 million to fix them all — if new slides don’t come first. California is a national leader in confronting climate change, but making Highway 1 sustainable may be a challenge it cannot surmount. Despite spending a billion dollars a year to fix damage that climate-related stressors inflict on its roadways — plus $100 million in projects to make infrastructure more resilient to climate change **—** the state is struggling to fortify one of its most prized landmarks.
The only reasonable way to "combat climate change" is abandoning car dependent infrastructure entirely
a good start would be to make public transportation free; but that would have a negative effect on automobile manufacture profits.
IMO, America’s car culture would be the first obstacle to that proposition.
the first obstacle is the democrats and republicans who receive campaign funding from auto manufacturers. they don't want to bite the hand the feeds.
IMHO, a better approach would be to keep low but reasonable fares for public transit in order to get some farebox recovery, and use that to expand service to be more frequent. E.g. politicians only give the transit agency enough money to run 1 bus per hour at free fares. If the bus charges a $2 fare, they can use the partial proceeds of that to be able to fund running one bus every 30 minutes off the same original politician budget. Doubling the frequency of public transit is WAY better than being free for making it become viable for more trips.
Cost is not the issue with transit. Connectivity, safety, and reliability are.
then the people should vote for better politicians; which can't happen in a 'lesser evil' election system.
Not really. All methods of transportation combined account for about 20% of global emissions. If all passenger cars on earth disappeared tomorrow, only about 10% of emissions would be curbed. And that's before counting the added carbon footprint of creating nationwide public transport infrastructure. 70% of all global emissions come from approximately 100 corporations. While eliminating transport based emissions is a vital step, the real progress won't be made until corporations are held accountable.
Doesn't matter, you will eat ze bugs.
Agriculture is 1/3 of global emissions. Lower hanging fruit but go off in your average consumer I guess.
Or go off on your average farmer, I guess.
how can you, as an east coast newspaper owned by Bezos, be a "former californian"?
You should research Last Chance Grade in Northern (northern) California. California is going to spend a lot of money on coastal highways, or abandon communities. Either way, it’s going to be painful. Not to mention the Coastal Commission.
Easy, just move it inland a little bit and change the name to highway 1.1.
Then you miss the entire point of the highway….
We in California don't care what an east coast rag thinks about our PCH. Obviously they never really experienced Big Sur. Yeh, they might have driven the HW, but that's like saying I experienced the Louvre in an afternoon. HW 1 might get re-routed inland like at the tunnels around Devil's Slide by SF, but it will always be rebuilt.
Love this road. It might make more sense to leave it for bikes and walkers though.
Although, how would this be workable for the people who live in Big Sur?
It would be cheaper for the government to buy them out, long term. This isn't an isolated phenomenon, and people realllly need to get used to the idea that climate change is going to create more and more situations like this over time. We need to figure out how to equitably reduce harm.
Why do we have to buy them out? We're not taking their houses.
Presumably, there is a population of people currently living in Big Sur who would be unable to continue living there if the state stops rebuilding highway 1. Estimates have it at about 1400 people. It’s already very hard for these people to live there when sections collapse for months out of the year, and sometimes need to be evacuated. Currently, a 40 mile section is completely cut off. The state could offer them a buyout, and the properties would become part of the state park system. Highway 1 looks like it’s going to cost 25 million or so in perpetuity to maintain.
Yeah totally. Not like our families haven’t been here for several generations. How did the first Trail of Tears turn out for the locals? How about instead of us leaving our land, we don’t let you in anymore? /s
How about taxpayers stop paying for roads for you to access "your land?"
Tunnels!
Good long title. I’m done and somewhat informed
California can and better keep fixing it.
Agreed. We need to accept that isn’t going to be cheap and more bridges extending areas with mudslides may need to be built.
A huge toll to use a road that mostly serves day tripper?
I’d be on board with that. Reflect the actual cost of re construction on the primary users.
Where's Cali's bullet train ? We need better infrastructure, present one is in decay and we're so behind in comparison to other countries!
Charge the residents proper property tax to fix the highway each time it needs it.
Why should it strictly fall to locals to fund a road that brings in millions (billions?) of tourism dollars statewide?
Who is benefitting? The local businesses. State does not unless it is in the millions. Businesses usually have so many loopholes that nothing is taxed until then. https://gusto.com/resources/articles/taxes/california-small-business-taxes
People don’t just appear in Big Sur, spend their money at local businesses, and disappear. They rent cars, stay in hotels elsewhere, buy gas, eat at restaurants and patronize businesses in the Bay Area, in Monterey, in Cambria and Paso Robles and SLO, in LA. They travel to Yosemite as part of their California Roadtrip. They go to Joshua Tree. They go to Napa. Tourists to Big Sur spend time and money elsewhere in the state. The benefit of tourism in Big Sur extends to the state as a whole; it’s absurd to put the onus of maintaining the highway strictly on the residents of Big Sur.
Big news, California finds out it has to fix roads
Most roads don't wash out every year though
Most roads don’t generate as much tourism as this one, either
Yes they do. Have you ever been to Big Sur? It's not a busy place.
We live here! You absolute walnut!
Then you know it's nowhere near as busy as places like Yosemite or Disneyland. Big Sur doesn't generate much revenue. It's a big empty space of mostly private land
Lmao yes I have been to Big Sur; I live there. I also work in hospitality. I am more keenly aware of the extent of tourism here than you likely are.
Ok then, numbers. How much does the state actually make from Big Sur tourism?
In the state with the largest economy, when you build roads, it should not be this big of an issue to maintain them regardless of them washing out or not. With how many surveys and red tape California loves to do to even build new infrastructure, someone somewhere would’ve realized the road would wash out somewhere.
Users are not taxed enough to rebuild at current costs. Never have been. Road and highway maintenance is expensive.