In a losing battle with climate change, can Highway 1 survive?

Reopening is a victory for Big Sur residents, but damage and costly repairs are increasingly common now

- Grace Toohey

BIXBY BRIDGE is now accessible from the south after Highway 1 reopened in both directions this month.

California marked a milestone this month with the return of an uninterrupted Highway 1 through the perilous, yet spectacular cliffs of Big Sur.

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 and precarious debris removal to once again connect northern Big Sur with its southern neighbors.

But no one expects this will be the end of Highway 1's battle with the forces of nature, especially in a world facing the intensifying effects of human-caused climate change.

"We, in Big Sur, know to plan with a grain of salt," said Matt Glazer, executive director of Deetjen's Big Sur Inn, located near the northern end of the closure. "This is a snapshot in time, and the everchanging coast of Big Sur is something that makes it beautiful."

A turbulent climate always has been the nemesis of Highway 1's 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.

But this latest closure - what appears to be the longest in Highway 1's 90-year history - raises new questions about how the highway can survive amid increasingly strong and unpredictable storms, seas and fires.

"If our storm and other conditions were normal, we would expect closures and losses at some points," said Michael Beck, director of UC Santa Cruz's Center for Coastal Climate Resilience. "The challenge is that we're now clear that the events that are going to cause impacts - these particularly extreme events - are getting more common.