Caltrans has closed the bike lane and #2 lane of southbound Highway 1 across the Crystal Cove climb before Laguna’s city limits.
The high tide + heavy surf has been pounding the beach away - right up to the base of the bluff below PCH - resulting in a large crack indicating a potential failure of the road bed.
Crack visible. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WJQ_OwvDbc
Phase 1 is hanging plastic tarps on the bluff to protect it from rain this season,
Phase 2 is dropping boulders at the base of the bluff to protect it from surf,
and the final solution is yet to be determined.
In the short term - the southbound bike lane and #2 lane are now closed; forcing a shared #1 lane.
Soon, to allow work. the rock dumping effort will close the entire southbound side - pushing traffic into 2 lanes on the inland side. Northbound there will still be a bike lane, but southbound will have no shoulder between the travel lane and the center divider.
Cyclists will be required to merge into the single southbound lane of traffic.
This is the up hill portion up to Laguna Beach.
Caltrans reached out to suggest a detour - Up Newport Coast - across Irvine to Laguna Canyon, then back to PCH… Bill suggester no one would accept a 8+ mile detour over the hill on Newport Coast then back over Laguna Canyon to skip a short (less than 2,000 foot) shared lane. We said we want SHARROWS, a 25 or 30 mph posted speed limit, Sharrows and BIKES MAY USE FULL LANE signs - NOT “Share The Road” signs.
Fortunately the only current BCI Route that uses this section is DCP#26 Long;
We will skip it in the rotation schedule until this issue is resolved.
Otherwise - anyone riding south toward Laguna Beach will have to deal with what ever Caltrans decides to do… for however long it takes to resolve this issue.
