Miles of Palo Colorado Road have been closed since 2017. Progress is happening, but slowly.

In January 2017, Monterey County was hit with an onslaught of storms, exacerbating damage in Big Sur and Carmel Valley from the 2016 Soberanes Fire, which left burn scars on 132,127 acres that were more prone to erosion and runoff.

Big Sur’s Palo Colorado Road sustained major damage in various places, including a complete washout at Rocky Creek. That was repaired by 2018, but the approximately 3.8-mile eastern stretch of the road still needs work.

The County of Monterey put out a request for proposals for engineering and design for the project in October 2020, and in March 2021 the County Board of Supervisors hired a firm, now called Consor Inc., to conduct the work, which last fall culminated in a “mitigated negative declaration” environmental document, which means the firm, and the county, do not believe the project will require a full environmental impact report.

The Board of Supervisors approved that document on March 19 of this year, the first in a series of many steps to repair the road. There will be permits required from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the California Coastal Commission.

There’s also the price tag: The estimated remaining construction costs are roughly $12 million. Enrique Saavedra, the county’s chief of public works, says only some of the repairs are eligible for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, so the county will be looking for grant opportunities.

If the money was in hand, he says, the county could complete the project in three years, barring any permitting snags, meaning 2027 – a decade after the damage was incurred.