43-mile-stretch of Highway 1 in Big Sur remains closed

A portion of California's Highway 1 stretching about 43 miles along the Big Sur coastline remained closed early Monday morning. Caltrans is expected to give an update on the road's status today. 

Caltrans said on Sunday the road remained closed to traffic from 2.5 miles south of Big Sur at Fuller's Point to Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County. 

The highway was first closed Saturday due to a rock slide that occurred amid wet weather. Back-to-back storms have brought several days of rain to Northern California and locations along the immediate Big Sur coastline have recorded 2.5 to 4.5 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. "Some of the inland peaks have recorded more," said Sean Miller, a forecaster with the weather service. "Anderson Peak has recorded 8.4 inches of rain since Thursday."

Caltrans said in a news release that preliminary assessments of the highway "revealed dozens of areas of concern," ranging "from rocks and debris in the roadway throughout sections of the entire length of the close area, to more serious slides at Cow Cliffs where a large rock breached the containment area."

Caltrans crews worked on cleaning up the slides on Sunday and geotech engineers are expected to visit the site on Monday to assess the safety of the highway. 

Highway 1 remains open from the Monterey Peninsula through 2.5 miles south of Big Sur and from Ragged Point to the Cambria and Morro Bay areas.