The last of several landslides has finally been repaired on California's famous Big Sur coastal highway. Now it's possible to travel the entire length for the first time in 3 years.

Don't get too excited, though. Another giant landslide or three will probably occur before summer.

Here's a photo of a typical large landslide. It's difficult to repair the road when the entire mountain is falling down.

Thanks for the info, Wayne.

When it's man vs. geology, only one side is ever going to win.  But CalTrans keeps on trying....

It's a beautiful ride and maybe this will provoke a future Cycleblaze journal entry or two.  

I pedaled Big Sur in 2009 and was disappointed to mostly have dense fog. Couldn't see much until climbing above the fog, but I took for granted that the highway would be open.

Amazing.  I wondered if they'd ever open it again.  I've been lucky enough to ride it three times in the past and doubt I'll ever do it again, but it's just nice knowing it's still there.

There was a similar situation on the coastal, scenic route between Sydney and Wollongong here in Oz. Eventually the roads dept gave up trying to fight the cliff, and built The Seacliff Bridge which has become a tourist attraction in its own right. 

California's coastal mountains are much taller, so the typical response is to build a billion dollar tunnel. One was recently completed to bypass the "Devil's Slide" south of San Francisco. A similar tunnel is in the planning stages in northernmost California to bypass the "Last Chance Grade"  south of Crescent City.

Afterwards, the original route is converted to a pedestrian and cycle path. But parts of that path will inevitably fall into the ocean a few years later.

That bridge looks awesome. I'm glad it turned out to be a good investment to keep the scenic coastal road fully open. I would go out of my way to see it.

The bridge was surely expensive to build, but it's probably only 1/10 as long as all the elevated bridges in a typical Texas freeway interchange.

Wayne the cost was about $50 million Australian 25 years ago , so it’s small change in $USD. 
It’s really only for local traffic and tourism. Most heavy vehicles take an inland route.

This area borders Australia’s oldest national park (Royal National Park) and is very close to Sydney, so it’s a popular destination. 

The Illawarra Escarpment which  is well worth seeing. It’s surprisingly intact considering there are numerous underground coal mines in the area. There are hundreds of kilometres of mine tunnels throughout the area.