Photos of crane being used for Monday’s demolition. It’s approximately 23 ft. wide and almost covers both lanes jno of Pfeiffer Cyn. Bridge

CORRECTED INFORMATION IN BLUE (I underlined it)

SR-1 FULL CLOSURE CONTINUES–RAGGED PT (SLO PM 72.87) TO JUST SOUTH OF PALO COLORADO (PM 61.5) WITH NEXT OPPORTUNITY FOR LOCALS AND RESUPPLY/DELIVERIES ON MONDAY, MARCH 13 AT 10 AM**.

**Deliveries to Big Sur were made today, Friday, March 10. The stabilized roadway at Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6) is limited to vehicles weighing 35,000 lbs.; this can accommodate a truck with 3,000 gallons of propane. The maximum vehicle length is 30 feet. The delivery vehicles met at Ragged Point at 10 am to be escorted north by a Caltrans vehicle. There is a flagger at Ragged Point checking I.D.’s for locals and allowing delivery vehicles through. The next opportunity for deliveries will be on Monday, March 13, Wednesday, March 15 and Friday, March 17 at 10 am each day. Delivery vehicles can head south unescorted once deliveries are made as there should be minimal northbound traffic.

As of today, Friday, March 10, locals only will have 24/7 access from Ragged Pt. to the Big Sur Deli with local I.D. until further notice.

The school bus will be allowed to cross Paul’s Slide as of today, March 10 and continue crossing until further notice.

*IMPORTANT NOTE – CALTRANS PFEIFFER CYN. BRIDGE (PM 45.5) UPDATE:
· DUE TO EXTREME SAFETY CONCERNS AND THE BRIDGE’S DYNAMIC INSTABILITY, EVERYONE needs to STAY CLEAR and not get within 100 feet of either side of the bridge. This closure will be enforced.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any remaining vehicles in the large turn-out just north of Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge have been towed to the large “secure” parking lot at the MAF as of TUESDAY, MARCH 7.

· Drilling continues and Caltrans geotechnical and bridge experts from around the state are working as quickly as possible toward the bridge replacement. Drilling investigation findings are targeted for Friday, March 17.

· On the maintenance side, Caltrans is continuing to make progress with the slides to regain as much access from the south as possible. We are also working to keep the roadway passable from the north to just north of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge—for locals only. Highway 1 is scheduled to open to the public from Carmel and north, to just north of the Big Sur Station (PM 46.35) next Thursday, March 16 as of 9 am.

*BUSINESSES REMAIN OPEN*

Locals may travel in a truck, SUV or van 24/7 as of today, Friday, March 10:
1) between Ragged. Pt. and Big Sur Deli (PM 45.3) and
2) between just north of Pfeiffer Cyn Bridge and Carmel.

Another update regarding the Highway 1 Big Sur Coast will be provided around mid-day on Friday, March 10 or sooner if conditions change.

NOTE: For information on emergency services only (not Caltrans road inquiries) for the Big Sur Coast, you may contact Gerry Malais, Mon. Co. OES via email at: malaisg@co.monterey.ca.us or Maia Carroll, Mon. Co. OES PIO at carrollm@co.monterey.ca.us or via phone at (831) 796-3092.

Susana Z. Cruz nature-flower-blue-motif[1]
Caltrans District 5
Acting Manager
Public Information Office

From CPOA:

As announced in our email of March 3rd, a foot trail is being constructed around the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge that will enable locals to hike between the northern and southern closure of the bridge. This project is estimated to take about 5 weeks.

However, when possible, people may be allowed to hike the trail during certain periods of construction. These openings will be evaluated on a daily basis and announcements will be issued by the unified command in the evenings and made public.

Following is an update from the unified command.

“It has been determined by John Hiles, State Parks lead for construction of emergency trail, that it is not safe for pedestrians to be on the trail. The trail is a construction area and will be closed today, 3/10/17, to the public. This will be re-evaluated daily and communicated via the joint command. The crew is making great progress and we have 10 more community volunteers assisting the effort this morning.”

And this beauty just posted by Kyle Evans. Crane is almost assembled.

Photos by Heather Foster. The first one is from yesterday, Thursday, the second is from early this am. Thank you, Heather.

From Cal Trans through KSBW:

Piece by piece, crews put together a 250 ton crane that will be used to knock down the collapsed Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge in Big Sur.

“The crane consisted of eleven loads coming from various parts of the state and it’s essentially being put together here on site,” said David Galarza with Caltrans. “It’s quite a task. They’re using a crane to put a crane together.”
After everything is assembled crews will attach a 6000 pound wrecking ball to the crane and use it to bring down the bridge.
“He’ll take it to a certain distance above the bridge deck and essentially drop it on there,” said Galarza. “Do that repeatedly and it will cause the bridge to fail. The key with that is making sure that the bridge fails in the location that we want it to.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF STAN RUSSELL—BIG SUR CHAMBER–☺

Paul’s Slide:

I’ll check with Rock Knocker tomorrow, but this looks like a temporary “fix” only and the road looks like it will need a stop light for one lane only.

Lighthouse Flats. Also looks to be one lane only.

And our now world-famous bridge over Pfeiffer Gulch (Canyon)

SR-1 FULL CLOSURE CONTINUES–RAGGED PT (SLO PM 72.87) TO JUST SOUTH OF PALO COLORADO (PM 61.5) WITH OPPORTUNITY FOR LOCALS AND RESUPPLY/DELIVERIES ON FRIDAY, MARCH 10 AT 10 AM**.

Paul’s Slide for locals: from Saturday, March 4 through Thursday, March 9 (shotcrete operation will take place all Thursday), there will be no access for Caltrans or locals from 7 AM to 7 PM. Locals MAY travel through this area from 7 PM until 7 AM with the assistance of a flagger conducting one-way reversing traffic control.

**Deliveries to Big Sur can be made tomorrow, Friday, March 10. The stabilized roadway at Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6) is limited to vehicles weighing 35,000 lbs.; this can accommodate a truck with 3,000 gallons of propane. The maximum vehicle length is 30 feet. The delivery vehicles will meet at Ragged Point at 10 am and be escorted north by a Caltrans vehicle. There will be a flagger at Ragged Point checking I.D.’s for locals and allowing delivery vehicles through. The next opportunity for deliveries will be on Monday, March 13, Wednesday, March 15 and Friday, March 17 at 10 am each day. Delivery vehicles can head south unescorted once deliveries are made as there should be minimal northbound traffic.

Starting tomorrow, Friday, March 10, between delivery dates and on weekends, locals only will have 24/7 access from Ragged Pt. to the Big Sur Post Office with local I.D. until further notice.

The school bus will be allowed to cross Paul’s Slide starting March 10 and continue crossing until further notice.

*IMPORTANT NOTE – CALTRANS PFEIFFER CYN. BRIDGE (PM 45.5) UPDATE:
· DUE TO EXTREME SAFETY CONCERNS AND THE BRIDGE’S DYNAMIC INSTABILITY, EVERYONE needs to STAY CLEAR and not get within 100 feet of either side of the bridge. This closure will be enforced.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any remaining vehicles in the large turn-out just north of Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge have been towed to the large “secure” parking lot at the MAF as of TUESDAY, MARCH 7.

· Drilling continues and Caltrans geotechnical and bridge experts from around the state are working as quickly as possible toward the bridge replacement. Drilling investigation findings are targeted for Friday, March 17.

· On the maintenance side, Caltrans is continuing to make progress with the slides to regain as much access from the south as possible. We are also working to keep the roadway passable from the north to just north of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge—for locals only. Hwy. 1 is scheduled to open to the public from Carmel and north, to the Multi-Agency Facility (MAF, PM 46.35) next Wednesday, March 15 as of 9 am.

*BUSINESSES REMAIN OPEN*

Locals may travel in a truck, SUV or van 24/7 as of tomorrow, Friday, March 10:
1) between Ragged. Pt. and Big Sur Post Office (PM 45.23) and
2) between just north of Pfeiffer Cyn Bridge and Carmel.

Another update regarding the Highway 1 Big Sur Coast will be provided around mid-day on Friday, March 10 or sooner if conditions change.

NOTE: For information on emergency services only (not Caltrans road inquiries) for the Big Sur Coast, you may contact Gerry Malais, Mon. Co. OES via email at: malaisg@co.monterey.ca.us or Maia Carroll, Mon. Co. OES PIO at carrollm@co.monterey.ca.us or via phone at (831) 796-3092.

Susana Z. Cruz
Caltrans District 5
Acting Manager
Public Information Officer

Our “mystery map maker” finished the last of the 3 interactive maps of the Big Sur Coast several days ago – the Northern section. These maps show the slide areas, current and past, and also provide photographs for many of the locations when you click on the names. I have been internet challenged again, so I am finally getting the announcement and links up here. He also put all three of them together in a non-interactive map suitable for printing. The links are below:

Non-interactive full set of maps suitable for printing: Big Sur Coast Maps Letter Size

Interactive Northern Section: Big Sur Coast Map North

Interactive Central Section: Big Sur Coast Map Central

Interactive Southern Section: Big Sur Coast Map South

And here is the link to the special page containing all of the above with additional notes and instructions: Maps Page

Enjoy, and a special thank you for the mystery map maker!

 big-sur-coast-map-north

 

Trail Volunteers can now loggin and see what days we still need volunteers and then they can say when they are available
https://teamup.com/ks6sdfo55nyupteyot here: Trail volunteers

Trail building is being coordinated with CCC and State Parks and our local Fire Brigade.
Here is a link if people want to let me know their availability.
Trail building is 7am to 4:30 pm with an hour lunch break. Must be able bodied, wear work boots, hard hat, protective eye wear and long sleeves and not be allergic to poison oak. So that rules out a few, but for those still interested I need two more on the Saturday crew and 8 more on the Sunday crew.
Then lots of people next week until the trail is deemed done.

carissa@chappellet.com

I have been severely internet challenged, again, but the sun finally cleared my satellite “eye” so I am back on satellite, and a much happier camper. I have been wanting to get these up the last two days, so here they are:

Paul’s Slide above and Nacimiento above. All work is proceeding on schedule (thanks to the good weather).

NOTE NEW INFORMATION RE DELIVERIES AND  LOCALS ONLY ACCESS FROM THE SOUTH FOR THOSE SOUTH OF THE BRIDGE

CALTRANS
HIGHWAY 1 UPDATE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8
11:00 AM
SR-1 FULL CLOSURE CONTINUES–RAGGED PT (SLO PM 72.87) TO JUST SOUTH OF PALO COLORADO (PM 61.5) WITH OPPORTUNITY FOR LOCALS AND RESUPPLY/DELIVERIES ON FRIDAY, MARCH 10 AT 10 AM**.

Paul’s Slide for locals: from Saturday, March 4 through Thursday, March 9 (shotcrete operation will take place all Thursday), there will be no access for Caltrans or locals from 7 AM to 7 PM. Locals MAY travel through this area from 7 PM until 7 AM with the assistance of a flagger conducting one-way reversing trafficcontrol.

**Deliveries to Big Sur can be made this Friday, March 10. The stabilized roadway at Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6) is limited to vehicles weighing 35,000 lbs.; this can accommodate a truck with 3,000 gallons of propane. The maximum vehicle length is 30 feet. The delivery vehicles will meet at Ragged Point at 10 am and be escorted north by a Caltrans vehicle. There will be a flagger at Ragged Point checking I.D.’s for locals and allowing delivery vehicles through. The next opportunity for deliveries will be on Monday, March 13, Wednesday, March 15 and Friday, March 17 at 10 am each day. Delivery vehicles can head south unescorted once deliveries are made as there should be minimal northbound traffic.

Starting Friday, March 10, between delivery dates and on weekends, locals only will have access from Ragged Pt. to the Big Sur Post Office with local I.D. until further notice.

The school bus will be allowed to cross Paul’s Slide starting March 10 and continue crossing until further notice.

*IMPORTANT NOTE – CALTRANS PFEIFFER CYN. BRIDGE (PM 45.5) UPDATE:
· DUE TO EXTREME SAFETY CONCERNS AND THE BRIDGE’S DYNAMIC INSTABILITY, EVERYONE needs to STAY CLEAR and not get within 100 feet of either side of the bridge. This closure will be enforced.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any remaining vehicles in the large turn-out just north of Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge have been towed to the large “secure” parking lot at the MAF as of TUESDAY, MARCH 7.

· Drilling continues and Caltrans geotechnical and bridge experts from around the state are working as quickly as possible toward the bridge replacement. Drilling investigation findings are targeted for Friday, March 17.

· On the maintenance side, our goal is to make progress with the slides to regain as much access from the south as possible. We are also working to keep the roadway passable from the north to just north of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge—for locals only.

*BUSINESSES REMAIN OPEN*

Locals may travel in a truck, SUV or van, daytime only:
1) between Ragged. Pt. and Big Sur Post Office (PM 45.23) and
2) between just north of Pfeiffer Cyn Bridge and Carmel.

Another update regarding the Highway 1 Big Sur Coast will be provided around mid-day on Thursday, March 9 or sooner if conditions change.

Don Harlan’s younger brother Stan, now 90, went to Sacramento at some point and found these historical documents he sent to me. Before it was named Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge (in 1968) it was called Pfeiffer Gulch,  which Steve Harper reminded me also. In Monterey County Place Names, it is called Pfeiffer Gulch. It was previously called Burnt Bridge Creek according to Ester Pfeiffer Ewoldsen. (Monterey County Place Names, p. 392.) It will be interesting to see what the cost of replacement will be – at least 10 times as much, I venture.