California Highway 1 re-opens after May 2017 landslide

July 18 (UPI) -- Part of California Highway 1 re-opened Thursday, about 14 months after a landslide put the scenic, coastal road under dozens of feet of sediment.

A landslide in May 2017 put about a quarter-mile of the road under 40 feet of mud and rock near Mud Creek in the state's central area known as Big Sur. In the time since, motorists had to take long inland detours to travel along the north-south route, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times reported Caltrans, the state's department of transportation, spent $54 million to rebuild the road, which now runs 250 feet west of where it original was.

In 2017, massive landslide buried 1/4 mile of #BigSur Highway 1 in #California. New @USGS coastal change project took air photos. Time-lapse animation produced with @CaltransD5 shows what happened & progress during construction, road opens today. Details: https://t.co/eUvMJvZ0Mu pic.twitter.com/UbGsnfzhHy

- USGS Coastal Change (@USGSCoastChange) July 18, 2018

The May 2017 landslide added 13 acres of land to the coastline, the U.S. Geological Survey said in June 2017. It said the landslide could have filled 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The stretch of road re-opened as of 9:45 a.m. local time Wednesday, Caltrans said.