Big Sur slide fix to take at least a year
Southern access blocked during Highway 1 repair
Big Sur will be largely cut off from the south for at least another year because of a monster slide that has blocked state Highway 1 for nearly four months, Caltrans said Friday.
The Mud Creek slide buried the road under 5 million cubic yards of dirt about 30 miles south of Big Sur on May 20. Building a new stretch of road over the slide area — using culverts, berms, embankments and netting — will cost about $40 million and take until at least the end of summer 2018, Caltrans officials said.
The job could take even longer if this winter is a wet one, Caltrans said.
“The landslide at Mud Creek is one of the largest in California’s history,” Tim Gubbins, Caltrans District 5 director, said in a statement. “We are working to safely rebuild the road in this complex and unpredictable area.”
The southern part of Big Sur is accessible from the south only via a long, winding detour on Nacimiento-Fergusson Road across the Santa Lucia Mountains. Even then, drivers who reach Highway 1 can’t travel to the main Big Sur settlement and on to Carmel because of the demolition of the storm-damaged Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge. The only way through the canyon is via a footpath.
The main Big Sur settlement is reachable from Carmel on Highway 1, but with the bridge still out, drivers can go no farther south. Travel to the area is down sharply, and Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties
are looking at a $554 million reduction in visitor-related revenue, said Visit California, a state agency that promotes tourism.
“If Caltrans says that’s what it’s going to take, that’s what it is going to take,” said Rick Aldinger, general manager of the Big Sur River Inn. “We certainly wish the road could open sooner. We wish it could open tomorrow. But it’s part of living here and doing business here. These things happen.”
There’s no estimated opening date for the new Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, said Caltrans spokesman Jim Shivers.
Its location in a protected state park and proximity to electric lines have slowed progress.
The new bridge’s steel girders have not yet been secured, Shivers said. “Upon completion of that huge task, it will give us a clearer indication of the timetable for completion,” he said. “We hope to have more of that next week. The next step is to install the steel rebar and then pour the concrete.”