Regent's Slide at post mile 27.8 on Highway 1 blocked the Big Sur coast after a Feb. 9, 2024 landslide originating 450 feet above the roadway that engulfed the highway and reached the beach and ocean. Crews began top-down removal April 30, 2024, and full-scale excavation continued since mid-July. Remote-controlled equipment increased worker safety and production amid ongoing instability. Crews installed dozens of 60-foot shear dowels in a 10-foot by 10-foot grid, drilled and grouted to anchor unstable soil to stable material and increase internal shear strength. The slope received 20 miles of steel and eight million pounds of cement.
Regent's Slide originated 450 feet above the roadway, displacing material that engulfed Highway 1 and continued down to the beach and ocean below. Over time, continued slide activity in and around the repair site, along with the height, steepness and instability of the slide area, has been a challenge crews have faced, sometimes bringing work to a halt. The introduction of remote-controlled equipment at the site allowed operators to take more risk while increasing production and worker safety.
By May of this year, crews began installing dozens of shear dowels, steel bars about 60 feet in length, into the slope above the work area. The shear dowels are drilled into the slope and grouted in place in a 10-foot by 10- foot grid fashion. The primary function of shear dowels is to reinforce the slope by increasing its internal shear strength. By anchoring the unstable soil layers to more stable underlying materials, they help resist the forces that can cause landslides.
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