Category: Road Conditions

Road Closure?

6:45 am – the below incident is no longer listed on the CHP website, but boy did the rain just pick up. Weather reports later today.

IS REOPENED 13.7 MI NORTH OF SAN SIMEON (SAN LUIS OBISPO CO) AT 0615 HRS ON 12/22/12
IS REOPENED TO SOUTHBOUND TRAFFIC 0.2 MI SOUTH OF GORDA (MONTEREY CO) AT 0615 HRS ON 12/22/12

5:30 am – This from CHP this am. Will try to get more info when I can. I am guessing – operative word guessing – that this means that CalTrans set the road closure sign up at the Willow Springs Maintenance Yard. Nothing will be done until dawn.

Incident: 00024 Type: CLOSURE of a Road Location: Sr1 N / Gorda TBM/LatLon: 35.842500 -121.401944
Detail Information
5:10 AM 3 [9] 1039 MTRY COM [Shared]
12:37 AM 2 [4] CTRANS ENRT TO SET UP CLOSURE
12:37 AM 1 [3] REQUEST CLOSURE F/ CALTRANS
Unit Information
12:51 AM 2 Unit Assigned
12:51 AM 1 Unit At Scene

PALO COLORADO RD CLOSURE – Lines down

11:30 pm – road still closed, and lots of rumors flying around re when it will open, but nothing definitive.

I have included a photo of the trees from the midcoastfirebrigade website. Amazing domino effect.

Incident: 00266 Type: Traffic Hazard Location: SR1/PALO COLORADO TBM/LatLon: 0:0
Detail Information
10:40 AM8[18] [Notification] [CHP]-1039 CAL FIRE, THEY ARE 97 ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF TREE , ,OTHER ENGINE ALSO ENRT / PGandE WILL 97 AT 1106 HRS
10:39 AM7[17] A27-014 REQ 1020 FIRE
10:39 AM6[16] A27-014 IF FIRE IS ON OPPOSITE SIDE, THEY SHOULD NOT ADVANCE, HOT WIRES
10:30 AM5[15] 1039 MONTCOM
10:28 AM4[10] 27-014 DOES NOT HAVE VISUAL ON FIRE
10:26 AM3[8] A27-014 PALO COLORADO 1/2 MILE EO SR1 3-4 FT IN DIAMITER 1125 POWER LINES DOWN PGE 97 NTFY FIRE
10:18 AM2[7] [Notification] [CHP]-[6] PER FIRE CHIEF /REQ CHP C3/MOTORISTS TRYING TO PASS UNDER TREE AND WIRES
10:18 AM1[6] PER FIRE CHIEF /REQ CHP C3/MOTORISTS TRYING TO PASS UNDER TREE AND WIRES
Unit Information
10:08 AM3Unit Assigned
10:08 AM2Unit Enroute
10:08 AM1Unit At Scene

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Big Sur Storm Damage – HML

These photographs were taken this morning by impetuous son …

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Highway One open

Been trying to post this on and off all day! grrrr…The rest of the day, I took off from blogging. Cal Trans announcement, Highway One officially opened again at 6:45 am. (But you will note from a post at 10:45 pm, it was unofficial ly open much earlier!)

Tomorrow, I’ll be braving Mud Creek, which has been moving a bit lately.

GBS CLEARED BOULDER AT RAIN ROCKS, PER LOCAL

10:30 pm – local says GBS cleared boulder and were letting people through. It is still “officially” closed as far as I know.

9:15 pm – NOTICE – Just got a call from CT PR, Collin Jones. A slide at Rain Rocks, MM 21has the highway closed From Ragged Point to Big Sur MM 71 to 41. Will reassess the situation in the am. I’ll keep you all updated. One can get to big Sur and Lucia from the north, but not from the south.

Thanks bigsurdeb for having my back and being this blog’s incredible back-up! You mean the world to us!

Weather, road repair, and photos

First, could the weather be any more beautiful? But watch for a major change. According to several reports, I could have a sprinkling of snow by Friday morning – so time to stock my wood box, while the weather is so wonderful.

“The rain won’t be widespread, with most of the shower activity developing along the coastal mountains where snow levels will drop to 2,500 feet by Friday morning. Modest accumulations
of snow (2- and 4-inches) are possible Friday across the Sierra foothills with a dusting also possible in the coastal mountains of the Central Coast.”

And this is the view that greeted me at the bottom of my road

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Then I got to Alder Creek … You know the place, where that major slide happened? Was that just last year? Anyway, Cal Trans has put netting up along the whole slide, but was working it again. I stopped and took these two photos … Note the draping, the rock-catching drapery walls, and the two climbers in the bright yellow on the left.

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Further down the road, the new chip sealing between the lighthouse and elephant seal beach was tying up traffic for 15-20 minutes. At least there was cell phone signal, so I could check email, surf (which I had not been able to do since Sat am at home) and all I had missed for a day and a half, so the time went by pretty fast.

Ride 2 Recovery Bicycle Event

On Tuesday, October 23rd, 170+ bicyclists will be riding down Hwy 1 from Carmel to San Simeon. The group is called Ride 2 Recovery and you can google their site to read more about the organization.

It is Gone!

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Thank you, Greg DeAlba, and Willow Springs Maintenance Crew!

Rocky Creek road closures

What Kathleen Lee’s message below does not make clear is that these closures are intermittent, not every Sunday-Thursday, but approximately 10 of them through the winter, and another round with fewer closures, scheduled for Spring. All closures will be preceded with adequate notice to all.

“The work to build the Rocky Creek Viaduct has started. Hard closures of the highway, where no vehicle traffic through the construction site will be allowed, will begin at the start of October. In order to place the equipment and do the drilling work, the contractor will be allowed to close the highway for 10 hour blocks during the evening hours, Sunday through Thursday nights. These hard closures are anticipated to take place October through the end of January.

Caltrans has designed the project to have the smallest possible impact on the highway, and is working diligently with the contractor to ensure that these hard closures and the intermittent daylight closures occur during times when the work will have the least impact on the residents, businesses and travelling public.

Currently, the hard closures are scheduled from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am, Sunday through Thursday nights. After hearing from the community various concerns about these scheduled times, Caltrans would like your input as to the best hours for the hard closures.

Please respond to this survey as to what your preferred hours of closure are. Based upon all results, a decision on the hours of closure will be announced soon. For those hours that are later in the morning, these will only be an option if Caltrans and Carmel Unified School District can make arrangements so that the students can get to school on time.

Share this survey with your neighbors, employees and people who regularly travel the coast so that we have the broadest possible outreach into the Big Sur community for this important decision. Due to the short timing, please respond by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, September 18th. Please only respond once. Thank you for your help.

Link to Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BY9JGDG

Kathleen Lee
Chief of Staff for
Supervisor Dave Potter
(831) 647-7755″