Floods after wildfires are washing California’s Pacific Coast Highway into the ocean – “It was great while it lasted”
By Joel Shannon and Doyle Rice
2 March 2021
(USA TODAY) – Soaring mountains on one side of the road and the Pacific Ocean on the other: It was 1956 and Gary Griggs was experiencing California State Route 1 for the first time.
He was a child, but in the following decades he would drive this scenic stretch of road, called the Pacific Coast Highway, dozens of times. He’d also learn how fragile it is.
In 2017, Griggs consulted on a major repair to the highway as an erosion expert. Now, he says the iconic road’s days may be numbered – at least in its current form.
Future generations may say “it was great while it lasted,” the University of California, Santa Cruz professor predicted.
Frequent damage has long plagued the PCH. Most recently, in January, yet another chunk fell into the ocean following intense rainstorms, which created a debris flow that overwhelmed water drains more than 100 miles south of San Francisco.
This time, a 150-foot piece of road broke off, the state Department of Transportation said.
Repairs are scheduled to be complete in early summer. For now, travelers must turn around when they reach the gaping hole – there’s no bypass in that remote stretch of road.
As global temperatures warm because of human-caused climate change, Griggs says the conditions that lead to this kind of damage will only increase.
The PCH’s days are numbered, Griggs said. It’s “inevitable” one day the fixes and repairs won’t be enough or will be too costly to save the highway. [more]
