Hundreds of tourists are still being impacted by the closure of Highway 1 after part of it collapsed over the weekend due to heavy rain.
“When we got to Bixby Bridge, there was firemen and CHP there turning everybody around saying go back into town,” said Linda Molinari, who was in Big Sur Saturday.
The partial collapse happened on the southbound side of the two lane road just north of the Bixby Bridge and south of Carmel, forcing part of the highway to close Saturday.
Crews on Sunday then set up convoys where they escort drivers through the area, and on Monday they continued assessing the area.
“Pretty much right at 12 o'clock they started leading everybody across and we were able to get out in that first wave,” said Molinari.
Those convoys will continue to happen daily -- one at 8 a.m. and another at 4 p.m.
While many have been able to pass through, tourists felt the impact Monday evening.
Lucas González is visiting from Spain and was hoping to go to Big Sur and then Los Angeles, but instead he’s making other plans.
“I think we are going to be spending the rest of the day in this area, the beach, we’ll probably sleep in Monterey,” he said.
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Meera Bala, from Atlanta, Georgia, was visiting family in Fremont and was hoping to spend the day in Big Sur.
“We followed Google maps and we thought Google maps would know all the road closures but it apparently did not and we just learned about the slide,” she said.
Crews are now working to set up concrete barriers that will make it safer for workers as they work to repair the road, and for drivers during the convoys.
There's no set timeline on when this part of the road will be fixed, but the daily convoys will continue to happen for weeks ahead.
