Highway 1's Bixby Bridge will be closed overnight for the next three weeks.

Late night or early morning drives down the Big Sur coast, whether for work or pleasure, won’t be happening during the next few weeks.

Highway 1’s Bixby Bridge will be closed overnight for three weeks beginning on Monday, July 12. The full closure will begin at 10pm and run through 6:30am from Monday to Thursday, and the highway will reopen for the weekend on Friday morning. For the following two weeks the closure will run Sunday to Thursday, from 10pm to 6:30am.

The full closure is necessary, Caltrans says, because the bridge is suffering from something called “spalling”—a process where pieces of concrete come loose from the underlying materials. A Caltrans contractor will be bringing in a big crane in order to lower works and cameras off the bridge, both to repair known patches of spalling and check the status of other parts of the iconic bridge.

In an initial announcement, Caltrans said the closures during the first week of repairs would start at 9pm. This prompted swift pushback from Big Sur residents and businesses. “When we first announced it, we heard back from some local businesses that a later closure time would be advantageous,” Caltrans spokesperson Kevin Drabinski says. These businesses pointed out that this time of year, with sunset happening around 8:30pm, a 9pm closure could leave many day visitors to the coast stranded. They also pointed out that it would create an obstacle for service industry workers, many of whom commute from the peninsula or beyond. 

“The emergency project is sure to burden employees and employers operating in Big Sur,” says Matt Glazer, general manager at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn. “I feel that Caltrans in conjunction with Sen. Laird’s office have heard our challenges and are addressing them to the best of their ability.”

Drabinski says Caltrans discussed this with the contractor, and the contractor “was happy to accommodate” a later closure time.

The full closure will still cut off Big Sur residents and visitors from various services—Caltrans says that because of the kind and amount of equipment their contractor will be using, it will take at least 30 minutes to clear passage for emergency vehicles should they need to pass through.