Bored? Break on Through to the Other Slide

Bridges to Devil's Slide bypass all but done

The number of puns contained in this headline probably exceeds the maximum allowed by law, but what they hey, it's Sunday morning and I'm feeling punchy. There is a craggy section of Highway 1 south of San Francisco called Devil's Slide that has been a pain in the rear for Caltrans and residents for years. Every few years, rocks would come down roly poly pell mell onto the highway causing traffic jams on alternate routes for months. I have no idea have many clutches were fried in those traffic queues, but I know that my patience was shredded more than once.

The question became, how do we go around the slide? The best solution was determined to be a tunnel--actually two tunnels. These two 4,200-foot bores are the first for the California highway system since 1964. The bypass isn't scheduled to open until late 2011 or early 2012 and it can't come soon enough.