BIG SUR >> Mark your calendars for Big Sur’s grand re-opening for business from the north: New Year’s Day, 2018.
That means it’ll be eight months before it’s possible to make the classic coastal Highway 1 drive between Northern and Southern California.
Caltrans has announced that Big Sur’s broken link — the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, damaged by winter storms — will be rebuilt by Dec. 31.
Meanwhile, local businesses are frustrated that Caltrans has ruled out a temporary pedestrian suspension bridge.
“Caltrans seems insensitive to the financial and personal disaster south of the Pfeiffer Bridge,” said Gregory Hawthorne, owner of Big Sur’s Hawthorne Gallery and a partner in Post Ranch Inn. “There is available space for a pedestrian suspension bridge. This would help facilitate the construction of the new bridge by allowing workers to move from one side to the other. This would also accommodate a gurney for the injured, food for families and businesses could be moved by wagon or wheel barrel. Children could walk to a waiting school bus.”
A temporary bridge could also link tourists to hotels, restaurants and galleries, he said.
“This is not only a convenience; it is vital to the survival of this stranded community,” he said.
Pfeiffer Canyon has split Big Sur in half.
South of the downed bridge are the fire station; post office; and Big Sur’s famous but now-shuttered retreats like Nepenthe Restaurant, Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, Post Ranch Inn, Ventana Inn and the Esalen Institute. Deetjen’s, partially damaged by landslides, aims to open its Inn and restaurant sometime in April, if there is access from the south. Esalen will open June 9.
Starting Monday, a steep and narrow half-mile footpath — for local residents, school children and service workers — will open from sunrise to sunset, linking both sides of Big Sur’s divide. Access is available only to authorized people through State Parks-issued waivers and passes.
Cyclists are prohibited from using the trail, according to John De Luca, Big Sur Sector-Monterey District Superintendent for California State Parks.
“This is an emergency bypass trail intended for pedestrian traffic only,” he wrote.
What are other access routes to Big Sur?
From the east, Nacimiento-Fergusson Road is now open to the public. But it is a difficult road in the best of times and is unlikely to be a safe main artery for tourists from the north. Once on the coast, drivers will find Highway 1 only open to Gorda on the south and Limekiln State Park on the north.
From the south, “Paul’s Slide” at Ragged Point, damaged by a mud slide, is closed at least until late April or May. Only residents and deliveries are allowed through — and only on Friday mornings and evenings.
For hikers, California State Parks hopes to open two storm-damaged parks — Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and Andrew Molera State Park, by mid-June. Both are accessible from the north. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and Limekiln State Park remain inaccessible from the north until the bridge is rebuilt.
