Nearly 8 inches of rain dumped on already-saturated Big Sur coast from Feb. 18-22, and a fractured support column under Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge on Highway 1 in Big Sur continued sliding downhill.
“The bridge is beyond repair,” says Caltrans spokeswoman Susana Cruz, based on a Feb. 21 structural assessment. “The time frame for a new bridge is unknown. We have a couple of days of dry weather, which will help us.”
Numerous cracks were found in the support column on Feb. 11 as a mudslide under the bridge shifted the concrete base.
Cruz estimates a replacement could take upward of a year – a long isolation for some 435 residents who live south of Pfeiffer Canyon, as well as dozens of restaurants and businesses. Access is also closed on Highway 1 to the south of Big Sur due to slides, and Nacimiento-Fergusson Road – the only east-west paved access – is also currently closed.
“The county is working on options,” Monterey County spokesperson Maia Carroll says. The county’s goal is to do a resupply within a couple of weeks.
So far, a medevac helicopter has been set up to transport Big Sur patients in case of medical emergencies.
Palo Colorado residents are also isolated after part of Palo Colorado Road washed out. Anticipating it will remain impassable for months, the Boy Scouts of America announced they are closing Camp Pico Blanco for their 2017 summer season.
Mid-Coast Fire Brigade Chief Cheryl Getz posted a message Feb. 21 on Nextdoor.com urging residents to prepare. “If you want to move vehicles out of the canyon do it now because I don’t think that option will be available much longer,” she wrote. “The road is holding up, but it will not for long.”
According to the National Weather Service, more rain is expected this weekend.
(1) comment
As usual the people at Caltrans have no understanding of soils and hydrology and think that all they need to do is lay out the rebar and pour the concrete. I have been watching their efforts fail, often dramatically for the past 45 years, having worked for the then Division of Highways after graduating from Humboldt. All three highway projects around my house had slope failures within one winter and the engineers responded by driving pipes into the slopes like pipes can find water or that water travels horizontally through the strata.
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