After nearly eight decades of dreaming and several years of digging, Caltrans announced Tuesday that the Highway 1 bypass at Devil’s Slide will open March 25.
This will be California’s first highway tunnel in nearly 50 years.
“Everyone is looking forward to the opening,” said state spokesman Bob Haus. “A lot of people have worked very hard for this day.”
The $439 million twin tunnels through the San Pedro Mountain are the first on a highway in California since the third bore of the Caldecott Tunnel in the East Bay opened in 1964. The area has been the site of eight landslides since Highway 1 opened in 1937, often closing the narrow two-lane road for months at a time and isolating motorists in Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada, Princeton and Half Moon Bay.
In addition, every year there are serious and often deadly accidents on the narrow roadway, which twists so sharply that safe drivers are forced to slow to less than 25 mph.
Reckless motorists have plunged hundreds of feet down the cliffs or drifted into oncoming traffic, resulting in horrifying head-on collisions. Plans are to turn the road, once closed, into a pedestrian and cycling park.
“Can’t wait for the tunnel to open,” said Lennie Roberts one of the sponsors of Measure T, the Devil’s Slide Tunnel Initiative who plastered bumper stickers such as “Think Tunnel,” “Build Tunnel — We Can Dig It!” during the 1996 campaign.
The new route is called “The Tom Lantos Tunnels, named after the late congressman.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Gary Richards at 408-920-5335.
