Big Sur Issue!!!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Good job keeping this thread current. I liked that \_/ symbol for bridge down!

Mark

[glc]

The Big Sur Blog says that they expect to get the road open from the bridge all the way south by the end of May.

[Mark Sedenquist]

That's an impressive reduction in the time required. From end of September to end of May! GLC, I couldn't locate the link that referenced the May opening on the Big Sur Blog.

Mark

[glc]

No, I guess I was too vague - the bridge won't be done till the end of September, but they are planning to get the road open FROM the bridge all the way south to the current closure by the end of May. Right now, it's closed to through traffic at Ragged Point, which is just north of San Simeon. This will allow the public access to the south part of Big Sur.

Right now, there is no public access to anything between Ragged Point and Pfieffer Canyon, except for a 10 mile stretch between Gorda and Limekiln - which is accessible via Nacimiento-Fergusson Road.

[glc]

There has been a major setback on CA-1, a huge landslide just buried the road at Mud Creek. Don't plan on it being open from Ragged Point to Gorda anytime soon.

[DonnaR57]

Our local news coverage said much the same thing this evening. It's all the rain that we've had.

Yet we are bracing ourselves for a heavy fire season -- which to some of us, doesn't make sense because of all that rain. What has happened, though, is that there is now more vegetation, with the sun and wind drying it out and making it more vulnerable to fire. At least one of the two dozen fires in Southern California in the past two weeks has been pinned on arson; another one on an errant campfire.


Donna

[Mark Sedenquist]

I've been looking at the coverage of this slide. It's hard to imagine what it will take to rebuild the highway through this area of the slide!

Actually, look at the photos from this week's coverage on the Big Sur Blog, the coast has a new point it didn't have before! The direct link just goes to main page, you need to scroll down to the post made on May 21st -- the text of this post starts: Photos of Mud Creek from yesterday, Saturday, May 20 when Mud Creek lost millions of cubic yards at 9:30 pm and also photos from today –Photos with credits shown at bottom of email. Click on the text on that page to see six incredible photos of the slide.

[DonnaR57]

On last night's news, there was a brief blurb about the big slide. Evidently, they are now predicting that it will be at least a full year before the entire CA-1 will be reopened. That slide, which they showed from air reconnaissance photos and video, shows the sheer mass that covers the road. In the photos and videos, you could see that there was no way to build a detour around it, either.


Donna

[glc]

On a better note, they are estimating CA-1 will be open between Lucia and the downed bridge in early July. Until the bridge is finished, you will be able to access the area between Gorda and the bridge via Nacimiento-Fergusson Road. It will probably be a year before it will be open between Ragged Point and Gorda.

[glc]

At the south end, they moved the Ragged Point closure north 5 miles today.

They are still on target for opening the road from Limekiln State Park to the downed bridge in early July. The only access to this stretch will be via Nacimiento-Fergusson Road.