filling that big hole

 FILLING THAT BIG HOLE
in 2011 my wife she and i made the trip down hwy one or the pacific highway from san francisco down to santa barbara
of course since then we have made the trip down the pacific highway from santa barbara to los angeles
passing through malibu
that route is the one we take sometimes coming back from ucla since there is a long stretch along the beaches that is beautiful to drive on 
and
there are no cliffs

in 2011 as i documented in this blog not long after we drove through big sur the road collapsed and fell down into the ocean
if you have ever driven this road you know its a long way down to the ocean below
it took them months to repair the road

then earlier this year around February it happened again
i wrote about it in this blog titled missing highway

when i read about it i thought what would it be like to be that first person to drive up to that big ole v shaped hole
looking down over the hood of your car on the edge of a new cliff peering down into the surf below

its things nightmares are made of


caltrans photo

in the photo above from cal trans you can see the v shaped defect left from the road collapse
what is interesting to me is that piece of heavy equipment sitting on the edge of the middle of that reverse triangle of dirt hopefully well packed into that funnel hole left in the hillside
how brave is that heavy equipment operator working that machine to move dirt with the cliffs edge just a few feet away

nope
that wouldnt be me

what i want to know is how the heck do they anchor that dirt in that funnel so with the next heavy rains it dont just slide down that hill again like melting ice cream in an ice cream cone

i cant sleep at night thinking about it
here is a good article from our local newsfeed noozhawk about the repair

plus there are no side rails in most places there

no
would i be the first person to drive over that fixed defect once the road is opened
no thats not for me

well
ive done big sur once and im happy
since then 
parts of the road has fallen in like that at least twice since we made our big sur trip
twice too many for me

also since our first trip down big sur ten years ago a family went over the edge into the crashing rocky surf below

nope
im done for sure
i did my big sur trip
its like jumping out of an airplane
you only do it once
and
once is enough for me

the organicgreen doctor