8:00 pm – more good news, per Chamber of Commerce, Cal-Trans informed them that Rocky Creek may be open on a one-lane, traffic light controlled 24-hour basis starting Thursday, April 21st.
Starting Saturday, April 16th one lane will open at 5 pm until Sunday morning at 8 am, then each night thereafter from 8 pm until 8 am. No weight restrictions at this time. Yeah!
Since Alder Creek will be closed up to a month, this is really good news. There are SO many things I need from up north that I’ve been holding off on!
__________________________________________________________
State of California • Department of Transportation
Today’s Date: Friday, April 15, 2011 @ 2:45 pm
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
***TRAFFIC ADVISORY #30***
HIGHWAY 1 CARMEL TO CAMBRIA ROADWAY UPDATE – ROADWAY REMAINS SHUT DOWN AT ALDER CREEK FOR AT LEAST A MONTH; ROCKY CREEK OPENS OVERNIGHT STARTING SATURDAY
MONTEREY COUNTY:
(1) Geologic instability and more debris falling on Highway 1 at Alder Creek (PM 7) have required the roadway to be closed in both directions for at least a month. Alder Creek is south of Nacimiento-Fergusson Road. Caltrans and the CHP advise against any unnecessary travel. THIS AREA OF HIGHWAY 1 CONTINUES TO BE EXTREMELY UNSTABLE; OUR CREWS AND CONTRACTORS ARE CONTINUALLY MONITORING AND CLEARING THE AREA OF DIRT, MUD AND ROCK FROM DAWN UNTIL DUSK. Opening date will be refined as production becomes known.
(2) Highway 1 at Rocky Creek (Post Mile 60.5) will OPEN for all traffic without any weight or length restrictions from 5 pm on Saturday, April 16 through 8 am on Sunday, April 17. Hwy. 1 will then OPEN each night at this location from 8 pm until 8 am the following morning. One-way reversing traffic control will be in effect. This will continue until all temporary repairs at Rocky Creek are finished. Work is scheduled to be completed the first week of May.
(3) A new progress update will be provided next Monday, April 18, unless conditions warrant sooner.
For more information on Monterey County projects, call the toll-free hotline at (888) 836-0866 or visit http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist05/projects/. Also, contact the statewide CHIN at (800) 427-7623 for highway traffic updates.
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OK – so now we can at least drive over the bridge at Rocky Creek to take a peek along the coast there after 5 PM and return to Monterey later that night? Am I understanding that correctly? Then I guess we head to San Simeon from Monterey and hope to catch Big Sur on another trip…sigh.
How does it go from 1st to 2nd week of May with weight restrictions of 5 tons to Tomorrow evening with no weight or length limit. I hope that little chunk of road can handle all that. It feels like the Caltrans engineers got heavy pressure from someone to jump the gun.
Funny I had the same feeling as Richard Mole (above), that I’d maybe pull over and keep the engine in idle and watch for awhile to see the success of the intrepid in front of me. Why do I keep picturing those movies with Tibetans heading over the pass to a distant market and the over-laden ox drops a thousand feet down the crevasse. Okay, I’ll think happier thoughts. It is confusing. If we think of it as okay to travel in non-construction crew hours I guess that makes sense. How can anyone get here from the south now with the new slide.
Breaking news brought to us fresh! Thank you!
I have a feeling I’m going to see a lot of neighbors at Safeway Rio Road Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m. racing to get back before the 8:00 a.m. closure. I’ll be there gladly. Cya there! Cheers.
I am thrilled the road is opening up to us! I will be waiting in line at 5pm. We researched “soil nails” and found that this is a common fix, used in many places, and trusted. I don’t think the contractor would open the road if they didn’t feel it was safe, that would ruin their good reputation, and from what I can find, they do have a good reputation, and are already working for us to the south. I am cheering the highway workers! I couldn’t live in beautiful Big Sur without them! Their original estimate was April 16th for a temporary fix, wasn’t it? so to me, they have accomplished their stated goal. Rather than sounding like they are jumping the gun, it sounds to me like this crew knows how to do this job, knows how to work together and estimates their time well. Besides, this side of the road did not slide down, has not moved since (that I’ve heard of) and has been shored up. Thank you Highway Workers! And thank you BigSurKate!