{"id":151473,"date":"2026-01-27T11:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T11:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/151473\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T11:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T11:28:07","slug":"californias-highway-1-fighting-a-losing-battle-against-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/151473\/","title":{"rendered":"California’s Highway 1 fighting a losing battle against climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

California marked a milestone this month with the return of an uninterrupted Highway 1 through the perilous, yet spectacular cliffs of Big Sur<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The famed coastal road was closed for more than three years after two major landslides buried the two-lane highway, and it took unprecedented engineering might<\/a> and precarious debris removal to once again connect northern Big Sur with its southern neighbors. <\/p>\n

But no one expects this will be the end of Highway 1\u2019s battle with the forces of nature, especially in a world facing the intensifying effects of human-caused climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, in Big Sur, know to plan with a grain of salt,\u201d said Matt Glazer, executive director of Deetjen\u2019s Big Sur Inn, located near the northern end of the closure. \u201cThis is a snapshot in time, and the ever-changing coast of Big Sur is something that makes it beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

A turbulent climate always has been the nemesis of Highway 1\u2019s splendor. The seaside road routinely has closed because of rockslides, mudflows, flooding, wildfires and coastal erosion, most notably in Big Sur but also in several sections from Malibu up through the North Coast. <\/p>\n

But this latest closure \u2014 what appears to be the longest in Highway 1\u2019s 90-year history \u2014 raises new questions about how the highway can survive amid increasingly strong and unpredictable storms, seas and fires. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf our storm and other conditions were normal, we would expect closures and losses at some points,\u201d said Michael Beck, director of UC Santa Cruz\u2019s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience<\/a>. \u201cThe challenge is that we\u2019re now clear that the events that are going to cause impacts \u2014 these particularly extreme events \u2014 are getting more common. … Climate change is here and now, it\u2019s no longer a problem of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

And those intensifying climate conditions \u2014 higher, stronger waves<\/a> that accelerate erosion; wetter, more volatile atmospheric river storms<\/a> that trigger landslides; and hotter, more destructive fires<\/a> that create conditions ripe for mudflows \u2014 affect much of the 650-mile coastal highway running from south Orange County to Mendocino County. <\/p>\n

But the confluence of these climatological issues is particularly apparent in Big Sur, where waves, storms and wildfire regularly affect its uniquely steep and fragile landscape, made up of a \u201cmelange\u201d of rock types especially susceptible to change, said Jonathan Warrick, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have waves undercutting [the cliffs] … and then we get big rains that kind of provide a lubrication for these things to crumble and fail,\u201d Warrick said. \u201cAnd then we have wildfires, and when that happens, often we can have debris flows coming down these mountainsides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glazer said he can\u2019t remember a so-called normal year in Big Sur \u2014 one without major road closures, dangerous wildfire or damaging flooding \u2014 since before 2015. <\/p>\n

The last decade has been marked by turmoil in the region from major wildfires that <\/a>forced evacuations and destroyed homes, causing burn scars that fostered dangerous debris flows<\/a>. Most notably in 2017, heavy rains caused back-to-back emergencies: first the failure of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge and then a major landslide near Mud Creek that left residents cut off for months<\/a> as the California Department of Transportation worked on repairs through 2019<\/a>. Then, storms in the winter of 2022-23 triggered the first of two major landslides<\/a> that kicked off the roadway\u2019s subsequent three-year closure. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s 11 years of something happening,\u201d Glazer said. \u201cIt\u2019s unquestionable that climate change and environmental impacts are impacting the speed and severity of which things change. … Climate resilience has to be part of the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while California has continued to lead many of the nation\u2019s discussions and efforts related to climate change mitigation, specifics about how it is preparing for and responding to issues across Big Sur and Highway 1 remain relatively elusive.<\/a><\/p>\n

Caltrans, the agency tasked with Highway 1\u2019s upkeep, has spent millions each year on such efforts, specifically an estimated $162 million on four major repairs and stabilization projects since January 2023, according to agency spokesperson Kevin Drabinski. But he did not respond to questions from The Times about the agency\u2019s large-scale climate resiliency planning for Big Sur and the entirety of Highway 1. <\/p>\n

Storms, mudslides and erosion also routinely have caused short-term<\/a> closures<\/a> in the Malibu area, where the road is typically known as the Pacific Coast Highway, adding to a long list of the highway\u2019s costly and inconvenient repairs.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt requires a lot of maintenance and it\u2019s going to continue to require a lot of maintenance,\u201d Warrick said. Highway 1\u2019s future \u201cis an engineering and political and financial will question more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like clockwork, road failures and landslides tend to bring up questions about when, or if, it might make sense to abandon or reconfigure parts of Highway 1<\/a>. When does it become too costly to maintain? Or is there a way to transform it, perhaps as a toll road<\/a> that might limit its exposure and help pay for its increasing costs?<\/p>\n

In a few, rare cases, officials settled on major modifications to the highway, including a tunnel that in 2013 replaced a treacherous stretch<\/a> of the road known as Devil\u2019s Slide south of Pacifica. And farther north along Gleason Beach in Sonoma County, rapid erosion finally forced officials in 2020 to move a section of the road inland<\/a>, to further avoid the ocean\u2019s wrath. <\/p>\n

But, for the most part, the focus in California has been on repairing existing infrastructure, Beck said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to need to get more innovative overall in the solutions, including how we pay for them,\u201d Beck said. \u201cWe can\u2019t just simply hold on to the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to do a lot more to accommodate, even advance, in the new futures that are coming,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

While parts of California\u2019s geography, geology and meteorology make circumstances unique along Highway 1, Beck said, precarious \u2014 and even crumbling \u2014 coastal highways are a relatively common problem across the globe. While there likely will be no single solution, he sees possibilities for improvements along a continuum \u2014 from resistance to realignment \u2014 including market-based solutions, such as improving how risk is priced, and nature-based solutions, such as fortifying dunes and wetlands, which can help ease erosion. <\/p>\n

But for locals, keeping the road open and in place remains the priority, even in the foreboding face of climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s knowledge that things may become more challenging in the next 10, 20 years,\u201d said Ryne Leuzinger, chair of the board of directors for the Big Sur Community Assn., which is working to increase fundraising to better prepare for the next disaster. \u201cIf conditions are somehow more difficult … the community will be there to help one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s important, he said, is the \u201cunanimity about the importance of Highway 1,\u201d something he\u2019s continued to hear from California leaders, who look at Highway 1 as a worldwide tourist attraction and driver for local and statewide business.<\/p>\n

Although Glazer would like to see more focus from officials on preventative and proactive work to stabilize the area, instead of reactive repairs, he said there\u2019s no doubt in his mind that it\u2019s a road worth maintaining. <\/p>\n

\u201cCome drive the road and it will answer your own question,\u201d Glazer said. \u201cIt is ever-changing and elements will evolve and engineering will evolve, but it\u2019s a National Scenic [Byway] for a reason.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gregory Hawthorne, owner of Hawthorne Gallery in Big Sur, doesn\u2019t want to go back to \u201cisland\u201d life as they experienced in 2017, or the cul-de-sac of the last three years, but he also knows that\u2019s sometimes the price you pay for living in this stunning region. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when you live on the edge, the edge falls off,\u201d Hawthorne, 74, said. \u201cThe benefits outweigh the tragedies or the different things that happen. … You got to be tough to live in Big Sur.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California marked a milestone this month with the return of an uninterrupted Highway 1 through the perilous, yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5097,7,9,8,443,1237,74805,11772,1575,74810,74808,74807,74809,1459,4610,74806,72],"class_list":["post-151473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-big-sur","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-climate-change","tag-coastal-erosion","tag-coastal-road","tag-executive-director","tag-highway","tag-jonathan-warrick","tag-major-landslide","tag-matt-glazer","tag-michael-beck","tag-part","tag-thing","tag-unpredictable-storm","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}