[Caltrans] – The California Department of Transportation announced Friday that Pacific Coast Highway (SR-1) between Sycamore Day Use Area and Yerba Buena Road has opened to public access.  An average of 10,000 vehicles uses this section of highway a day.

Pacific Coast Highway (SR-1) between Yerba Buena Road and Las Posas Road was closed after rain storms and debris slides covered the highway in December.  Repair crews were able to clear the highway and re-open it for the public for a short time.

In January a heavy storm caused more rock and debris slides, and washed out slopes near Sycamore Cove Beach requiring that highway remain closed till the end of February instead of January.  Six-miles of the 9-mile closure between Las Posas Road and Sycamore Cove Day Use Area were opened to the public on February 3.

Motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists were restricted from entering the three-mile closure because the highway was undermined in three separate locations just south of the Sycamore Cove Day Use Area.

To repair the remaining sections highway, our contractor:

* Removed 40,000 yards of dirt or 4000 truck loads. Much of the dirt was reused to rebuild damaged sections along the highway.  Point Mugu State Park used the dirt to repair trails and CSU Channel Islands will use the dirt for a future construction project.

* Cleared dozens of drains, thousands scuppers and weep holes, and rebuilt thousands of feet of shoulders and slopes.

* Used a 200-ton Link Belt crane to place 8,168 tons of rock to help rebuild the rock slope protection south of the Sycamore Cove Day Use Area along the highway.

Union Engineering of Ventura, California was awarded this $7 million emergency contract.  The state will be reimbursed for the costs of this project under the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Fund.  Please Be Work Zone Alert.