In April of 2011, a landslide damaged a 200-foot portion of California State Route 1—a historic part of our state’s transportation infrastructure—along the steep cliffs between Bixby Bridge and Rocky Creek Bridge, south of Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea.
The hillside was stabilized right away using a soil nail wall, but the highway had to be reduced to one lane with signal-controlled traffic through the area. The Rocky Creek Viaduct, a 600-foot bridge structure, is being constructed to completely replace the roadway adjacent to the repaired slope. Creating a bridge here means future landslides won’t affect the Viaduct area—any slide material will pass between the bridge and the hillside, keeping motorists safe and preventing further expensive damage to this stretch of road. [ read more… ]