Nearly three weeks have passed since a segment of Highway 1 near the Rocky Creek Bridge in Big Sur slipped into the ocean. Despite a handful of pauses due to rain, Caltrans crews have made steady progress on temporary repairs. On April 12, the agency announced plans to restore unrestricted access through the Rocky Creek Bridge area by Memorial Day.
“We believe that we would have one-way signalized traffic control in place by May 27th,” said Caltrans District 5 public information officer Kevin Drabinski. “That's going to be an important milestone because it will eliminate the need for convoys and allow for 24/7 access through the repair site.”
Until the traffic signal is up and running, twice-daily convoys will continue at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., but only for local residents and essential workers. While Caltrans works to stabilize the edge of the roadway, most of Big Sur is still off limits to the public. According to California State Parks spokesperson Brent Marshall, all state parks in the area are expected to remain closed until Caltrans opens Highway 1 at Rocky Creek to visitors.
For many people who live and work in Big Sur, Memorial Day can’t come soon enough. Because tourists are unable to visit, employees of local businesses have seen their hours slashed. Kirk Gafill, general manager of the restaurant Nepenthe, has tried to keep some of his staff on payroll by addressing deferred maintenance and deep cleaning projects, but that only accounts for a fraction of employees.
“The lion's share, three fourths to 85% of our staff that are hourly, are either tremendously reduced hours or we just haven’t been able to offer them anything,” Gafill told KAZU. “And so that’s our greatest concern.”
Gafill has spent most of his life in Big Sur, so temporary road closures are nothing new. Still, he says he expected this repair to happen faster.
“Initially, we had very little appreciation for how long it was going to be,” he said. “We didn't know if it was a matter of days or maybe several weeks. It came as quite a surprise and a very unexpected one on Friday when we were told it was going to be towards the end of May.”
Despite the May 27 estimate, Gafill is hopeful that Caltrans will be able to stabilize the edge of the roadway before then. But this isn’t the only road repair Caltrans is dealing with in Big Sur right now. In addition to Rocky Creek, there are three slides blocking access farther south, each with disparate reopening timelines.
