Year: 2019

Highway to close at 5 pm

Today’s Date: March 5, 2019 at 9:45 am

District:            05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa

Cruz Counties

Contact:          Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones

Phone:            (805) 549-3138 or 549-3189

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

**TRAFFIC ADVISORY**

CALTRANS ANNOUNCES TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF HWY. 1 AT MUD CREEK/PAUL’S SLIDE TODAY AT 5 PM

MONTEREY COUNTY — Caltrans has received confirmation from National Weather Service (NOAA) data that a significant storm will reach the areas of Mud Creek (PM 8.9) and Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6) on State Route 1 in the Big Sur area this evening. The Highway 1 closure, for traveler safety, will include the areas of Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide, closing today, Tuesday, March 5 at 5 pm until further notice. SEE ATTACHED CLOSURE MAP.

 The closure initiation process will begin at 3 PM with Electronic Message Signs activated and both sets of gates (Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide) closed by 5 pm today.  Storm activity is currently forecast through Thursday, March 7.

Businesses along the Big Sur Coast on Hwy. 1 remain open and are accessible via Hwys 101, 68, 46.

Caltrans’ Geotech, Maintenance and Construction units are on call and prepared to inspect/clean up when the storm ends during the daylight hours and it is safe to be onsite again—we currently anticipate this to be Thursday, March 7 (weather dependent).  Caltrans’ goal is to open the roadway as quickly and safely as possible and our staff remains on-call 24/7.

The gates on either side of Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide will be key locked. These gates will not be manned when the highway is closed and there will be no access to anyone, including Emergency Services or Caltrans employees until a proper assessment can be made and any necessary cleanup has been completed.

NOTE: Both Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide will close today. An update will be provided by the afternoon of Thursday, March 7 or sooner.

Tourist Tuesday – The Gringo Trail

I have been covering this weekly subject for quite a while now – over a year. As I said the last time, we all know what the problem is, but it is now time to move out of identifying the problem and into finding solutions. I will no longer be reporting on the problems, but now, focusing on the solutions, instead.

In 2016, we started this process at Treebones, then all hell broke loose in our world- Soberanes, then Mud Creek – and it wasn’t until 2018 that we were able to reorganize and get all the stakeholders together for a series of meetings at Lisa Kleissner’s house. This has lead to a variety of approaches which are now taking shape, but focusing on developing our own Sustainable Destination Management Plan. We are in the process of bringing that to our community with some national and international leaders to help us facilitate. Look for an announcement here in the next few months for a community meeting on this project to hopefully meet a couple people who we think can help guide us in this project and on this process.

In researching one of these international leaders, on Sunday, I found this, and wanted to post it for Tourist Tuesday. Unfortunately, I did that through YouTube, not through my own website, so it went up immediately, rather than today, as I intended. The post was incomplete, so I rescheduled it to today. I apologize to those of you who get the email notifications. There were many things I wanted to add, besides the trailer, and so here it is.

www.youtube.com/watch

The above is just the trailer, but the entire feature length documentary can be purchased for $3.99.  One can find the places to purchase this video here: http://gringotrails.com/support-2/

Currently, as some of you are aware, CABS Board, Friends of Garrapatta, and other individuals, two professors at CSUMB are doing a case study on the effect of overtourism on Big Sur. They are both PhDs and professors in the Sustainable Hospitality Department, and are very interested in investigating the problems we have had here, from the back country to the highway, and the roll tourism has played into these problems and the solutions that can be implemented. They are also looking at the MCCVB and See California tourism industries to see what solutions can be obtained in conjunction with their efforts to enhance the tourist experience. I don’t expect the results to be available soon, but when they are, I am hopeful I can share them with you. Until then, attend the B-SAGE  event on March 30th and bring your ideas to the solutions board. If I don’t make it, (road/weather/whatever) can someone take a picture of it at the end of the day and send it to me??

Upcoming Storm, 3/4/19

This is a rather long explanation of what is coming, what is likely, and what is possible, although improbable. From NOAA/NWS:

Early morning satellite imagery shows two features of interest
over the eastern Pacific approaching the California coast. The
first is a comma-shaped cloud mass associated with an upper low
currently centered several hundred miles west of San Francisco
near 35N/145W. The second is an elongated area of cloudiness to
the south of the upper low associated with a plume of subtropical
moisture that is taking aim at south-central California. Models
have been consistent in keeping these two features largely
independent of one another as they approach the coast over the
next 36 hours. What this means is that the subtropical moisture
plume, and its heavy rain potential, will likely remain mostly to
the south of our area. Models generally agree that rainfall
associated with this plume will spread onshore across southern
Monterey County by around midday Tuesday, but then mostly remain
to the south of our area through Wednesday, generating the most
intense rainfall across San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara
Counties. Meanwhile, the upper low will track towards the northern
California coast and spread widespread rainfall across our area
from late Tuesday into Wednesday. The upper low will entrain
enough moisture to generate moderate rainfall amounts across our
area, and brief locally heavy rain is possible, especially late
Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Rainfall totals from Tuesday
through Wednesday are currently forecast to range from a half inch
to an inch in most urban/coastal/valley locations, and from 1 to
2 inches in the hills, except up to 3 inches in southwest Monterey
County. Rainfall totals of this magnitude combined with saturated
soil could result in minor nuisance flooding in low lying areas,
but river flooding is not anticipated. Will need to be wary,
however, of any indication that the upper low is entraining more
significant moisture from the moisture plume to its south. If such
a development were to occur, rainfall totals could be
significantly higher across our area, and more widespread and
serious flooding issues could develop. But given the how
consistent the models have been as of late, this more dire
scenario seems unlikely.

From John Lindsey, SLO: “This morning’s  European (#ECMWF) model run is indicating between 2 and 4 inches of rain starting Tuesday afternoon and continuing through Thursday afternoon.”

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24-hour notice of closure

Today’s Date: March 4, 2019

District:            05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa

Cruz Counties

Contact:          Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones

Phone:            (805) 549-3138 or 549-3189

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

**24-HOUR TRAFFIC ADVISORY**

TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF HIGHWAY 1 AT MUD CREEK/PAUL’S SLIDE AT 5 PM TUESDAY, MARCH 5

MONTEREY COUNTY — Caltrans has received confirmation from National Weather Service (NOAA) data that a significant storm is in the forecast for this week including the areas of Mud Creek (PM 8.9) and Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6) on State Route 1 in the Big Sur area.

This advisory is to inform the public to be prepared for preemptive closure of the roadway scheduled for 5 pm Tuesday, March 5th due to a significant storm. A final notice will be sent just prior to the roadway closing. Caltrans will have our Geotech, Maintenance and Construction units on call and prepared to inspect/clean up during daylight hours when the storm ends and it is safe to be onsite again.

The gates on either side of Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide will be key locked. These gates will not be manned when the highway is closed. No one, including Emergency Services or Caltrans employees will be allowed access until a proper assessment can be made and any necessary cleanup has been completed.

NOTE: These advisories apply only to the Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide areas with each closure being treated separately–both locations will close at 5 pm Tuesday, March 5th. Please stand by for additional information.

# # #

 

 

 

48 hour notice on highway closure

Today’s Date: March 3, 2019

District:            05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa

Cruz Counties

Contact:          Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones

Phone:            (805) 549-3138 or 549-3189

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

**48-HOUR TRAFFIC ADVISORY**

POTENTIAL TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF HIGHWAY 1 AT MUD CREEK/PAUL’S SLIDE

MONTEREY COUNTY — Caltrans has received notification from National Weather Service (NOAA) data that there is a significant storm arriving in approximately 48-hours for the areas of Mud Creek (PM 8.9) and Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6) on State Route 1 in the Big Sur area.

This advisory is for travelers to be ready in the event the roadway needs to be closed due to a predicted significant storm and allow time for them to prepare for the closure including stocking up on necessary supplies and making plans.

NOTE: At the 24-hour mark, an updated traffic advisory will be sent, either confirming the full closure or providing additional information. These advisories apply only to the Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide areas with each closure being treated separately.

# # #

 

Photo Sunday, 3/2/19

I just received this delightful book this past week, and I thought I would share a couple of the pages with you. It is mostly the stories of coming down to Big Sur on mules or horseback checking on the schools – in the mountains and on the coast – bringing books and once bringing a social worker to check on a WWI vet living down in the canyon of the Los Burros Mining District. There are a few historical photographs. It is available on amazon.

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Construction Project Postponed, date TBD

Yesterday (last night/early this am) with Cal Trans was surreal. A reader in Yankee Point, Katherine, a former location manager, pointed out that my two posts yesterday put the filming crew and the construction crew on a collision course, so I notified both.
Susana informed me that the construction had been postponed due to rain. I asked about a Public Information Release and she replied:
On Mar 1, 2019, at 4:57 AM, Cruz, Susana@DOT <…>wrote:
“I asked if they wanted one and they said no; we’d inform public if they called. New date TBD.”
My email to her:
“Tell TPB that that makes no sense. If they ask you to put out a PR notice re the start of a project, and then cancel it, the public deserves to know it has been canceled – especially a months long, miles long, project. So, I will inform them. If I have to write my OWN PR, they might not like it. When scheduled, they knew the month of March was predicted to be rainy, so why issue it? IF it was actually postponed because of rain, with date TBD, does that mean it will start in summer??? Phew, that policy of no new PR if cancelled or postponed stinks.”
“

Construction Hurricane Point to Rocky Point

Today’s Date: Thursday, February 28, 2019

District:           05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa

Cruz Counties

Contact:          Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones

Phone:            (805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3189

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT ON STATE ROUTE 1 BETWEEN HURRICANE POINT AND ROCKY POINT IN BIG SUR STARTING TOMORROW, FRIDAY, MARCH 1ST

BIG SUR – A construction project to widen shoulders on the existing roadway and upgrade the guardrail is scheduled to begin tomorrow, Friday, March 1st along State Route 1 between Hurricane Point and Rocky Point in Big Sur, Caltrans officials announced today.

Roadwork consists of both daytime and overnight work, consisting of one-way reversing traffic control. Details are as follows:

Overnight work

Daytime work

NOTE: Motorists can expect delays not to exceed 20 minutes. Although work includes daytime and overnight work, crews are working with the school buses to ensure flow of traffic. Electronic message signs will be posted alerting the traveling public of this project.

The contractor for this $3 million construction project is Granite Construction Co. of Santa Clara, CA and should complete this summer.

Caltrans reminds motorists to move over and slow down when driving through highway work zones.

For more information on this project and for traffic updates on other Caltrans projects in  Monterey County, residents can call the District 5 toll free number at 1-831-372-0862or can visit our website at: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist05/paffairs/release.htm#mon

We welcome your feedback: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RNBZG55

 

 

 

 

 

And another film shoot at Bixby and other turnouts in Big Sur

I just got this notification this morning, so not much notice, but perhaps it will bettter help to plan the beginning of your week next week.

Date: February 27, 2019
To: Big Sur Residents and Businesses
From: Netflix / Pacific 2.1 Entertainment
Film Production Activity on Highway 1 in the Big Sur Area Scheduled for Monday, March 4th and Tuesday, March 5th
In an effort to better communicate with Big Sur residents and business owners regarding upcoming film activities in the area, this is to notify you of a permitted film shoot to take place on Monday, March 4th and Tuesday, March 5th (If weather is not cooperating, we may film instead on Wednesday, March 6th). We are planning to do shots from various turnouts up and down CA-Hwy 1 from Carmel down to the Big Sur River Inn, so it is hard to predict precisely what time we will arrive in each area, but all shots take place during daylight hours and once we’re set-up should take no more than an hour to film each one. Our shots involve period 1940’s picture cars driving past so will require intermittent traffic control (ITC) at and near Bixby Bridge and Hwy 1. As per our permit, a portion of parking at the Bixby Bridge turnout will also be used.

We will be hiring California Highway Patrol officers to facilitate the ITC and to ensure public safety and access with only brief traffic holds. A handful of stakebed and passenger van-sized vehicles will also be parked along Old Coast Rd, while most of our trucks and equipment will be stationed in a parking lot up in Carmel.
We have taken all necessary steps to ensure that the required permits have been obtained and will comply with restrictions necessary for a safe and efficient shoot.

The production company would like to show its appreciation to the community with a donation to the Mid-coast Fire Brigade and Big Sur Fire Brigade.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. I hope this advance notice is helpful for you to plan your day.

Sincerely yours,
Robert Foulkes
Location Manager
Netflix / Pacific 2.1 Entertainment