Power Outage, Road repairs, & Storm Watch

2:30 pm – here is the official Cal-Trans power outage update on the River/Road repair:

Date: Friday, January 29, 2010
District: 5 – Santa Barbara, SLO, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties
Contact: Susana Z. Cruz (Bilingual) or Colin Jones
Phone: (805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3189
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
***UPDATE 2***
EMERGENCY BIG SUR RIVER PROJECT ON HIGHWAY 1 BEGINS NEXT WEEK

MONTEREY COUNTY – An emergency project to prevent the Big Sur River from cutting into the embankment by the Big Sur Lodge/Big Sur Park Campgrounds begins next Monday, Feb. 1, Caltrans officials announced today.

Alternating lane closures with one-way reverse traffic control will be in effect from 7 am to 5 pm Mondays through Fridays for two weeks with closures primarily on the northbound side. Up to 10-minute delays are anticipated

There are power lines in the work zone so PG&E will be shutting down the power for one day only on Monday, Feb. 1, from 8 am to 3 pm due to a power line relocation and setting two power poles across the road. Caltrans roadwork will begin on Tuesday, Feb. 2 and continue for two weeks through mid-February.

The project is necessary as the Big Sur River is rapidly eroding the hillside. Big rocks, approximately 5’ x 5’ x 5’ will be placed via crane in the river to keep it from further cutting into the roadway embankment.
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And here are the South Coast road repair updates:

Date: Friday, January 29, 2010
District: 5 – Santa Barbara, SLO, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties
Contact: Susana Z. Cruz (Bilingual) or Colin Jones
Phone: (805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3189
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HIGHWAY 1 NORTH OF RAGGED POINT NOW OPEN OVERNIGHT

MONTEREY COUNTY – Caltrans officials announced today there will be no more overnight closures due to roadway erosion on Hwy. 1, nine miles north of Ragged Point or three miles south of Gorda, which are both about seven miles into the Monterey County Line from San Luis Obispo.

This segment of Hwy. 1 will continue with continue roadwork during daytime hours (7:30 am to 5 pm) with reverse one-way traffic control.

A section of fill has been washed out by ocean surf due to recent heavy rains.

• The temporary signal south of Lucia for the bridge/rockshed project remains in
operation.

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY–Construction has resumed to install several horizontal drains on Highway 1 one mile north of Ragged Point during the daytime only, with one-way traffic control with flaggers will continue from 7:00 am until 4:00 pm Monday through Thursday and until 2 pm on Fridays.
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When I drove by the river damage today, 4-5 PG&E trucks were working in the area. Apparently, they are trying to figure out if they can move the power line to maintain service while allowing the necessary crane. A conference call between Cal-Trans, the contractor, and PG&E is being held as I type. As soon as I get official word on the results of said conference, I will post here.

On a different note, NOAA forecast discussion wrote this morning: “.DISCUSSION…AS OF 9:38 AM PST FRIDAY…MULTIPLE CHANCES FOR RAIN THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS.”

They went on to write: “THIS WILL RESULT IN RAIN BECOMING LIKELY FROM NORTH TO SOUTH THIS EVENING INTO THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. (the weekend is expected to be dry)

ENJOY THE DRY WEATHER WHILE IT LASTS…A RAINY WEEK IS EXPECTED TO KICK OFF MONDAY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. ACCORDING TO THE CPC EL NINO STRENGTHENED DURING DECEMBER, WITH ABOVE AVERAGE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES ENCOMPASSING THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EQUATORIAL
PACIFIC OCEAN.

So, bigsurkate will be on storm watch, again, for the next week. It is not predicted to be as wet nor windy as last week was.