U.S. famous scenic Highway 1 cut by landslide

Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 07:34:48|Editor: Song Lifang
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LOS ANGELES, May 25 (Xinhua) -- It could cost one billion U.S. dollars to repair California Highway 1, one of the most scenic drives in the United States, which was cut by the largest landslide happened in its history.

According to the local KTLA5 news on Thursday, with more than one million tons of rocks and dirt fell, the latest landslide happened on last Saturday night covered almost one third of a mile (0.6 kilometers) of Highway 1 in Big Sur region, 440 kilometers north to Los Angeles.

Susana Cruz, a spokeswoman of the California Department of Transportation (CDT), was quoted by the ABC 7 as saying that the CDT had been able to go up there and assessed the situation, however, since there were still small scale landslides, the repair work could not start by far.

"It's still moving. We have geologists and engineers who are going to check it out this week to see how do we pick up the pieces." she said Monday.

Highway 1 through Big Sur is narrow and windy, but still attract tourists to watch the redwoods, beaches and the highway's dramatic Oceanside scenery between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

No injuries or damage were reported in the landslide last week, officials said, but the local residents, most running resort business or restaurant, worried when the route, that was cut constantly since from this January and kept closing Monday, could be reopened.

Kirk Gafill, the president of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce and owner of the historic Nepenthe Restaurant, told ABC7: "In our way of thinking and our way of planning, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. You just hope they're dispersed far enough over the years so you can replenish your cash reserves."

LA Times reported Monday that due to several other spots of the dozen miles of Highway 1 of coast were closed since from January by the heaviest rains in decades, officials estimated in April that the repair cost was about 860 million U.S. dollars, but now the cost was estimated over one billion U.S. dollars, which could be a heavy burden on the state budget.

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