California's Highway 1 collapse in Big Sur was caused by weather, waves, gravity. That's the good news
LOS ANGELES — Federal geologists blame the latest collapse of Highway 1 in Big Sur on a relatively common rockfall caused by weather, waves and gravity that eventually cracked the steep cliffside beneath the roadway, according to a new analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The good news is that researchers didn't see a larger landslide at work, which would suggest greater instability in the surrounding area. The bad news is that it's an ongoing challenge to predict where and when another rockfall could happen along Highway 1 — the stretch of highway that the USGS considers most vulnerable to coastal erosion in California.
The March — where a chunk of the southbound lane fell into the ocean during a rainy weekend — left much of the from the rest of the state, with only limited convoys allowed through the damaged stretch. A separate stretch of Highway 1 — about 40 miles to the south — has been closed since January 2023, pounded by a string of landslides, including one this winter.
