Is Big Sur’s Highway 1 worth saving?

I have made the ride a few times …only rival the Cabot Trail … Chas

More than 60 times in its history, the Big Sur route has been buried by landslides

.via Big Sur’s Highway 1 buried by slide: Is it time to give up?

Excerpt

Ever since a thin ledge of pavement was poured along Big Sur’s cliffs, opening the rugged region to tourism in the 1920s and 1930s, California has fiercely
fought to save Highway 1.

And Mother Nature just shrugs it off. More than 60 times in its history, the Big Sur route has been buried by landslides. Even before this winter’s storms, about $130 million was budgeted over the next decade for repair, replacement and realignment.

he narrow, winding, desolate and fog-draped road, with the Pacific’s booming surf as a soundtrack, has long captured the imagination of a state that romanticizes driving.

“The road’s up there on the wall a thousand feet with sheer drop … and witless cars racing across it like dreams. From rock to rock! ” Jack Kerouac wrote of a route that’s been immortalized in song lyrics, poems and countless Instagram feeds of bug-eyed tourists from around the world.