Big Sur: Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge to open Friday the 13th

Good news for Big Sur residents, businesses, and visitors: the sleepy town along Pacific Coast Highway, saddled with record rainfalls this winter, will open the new Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge on October 13.

“It is a full opening in both directions,” Caltrans spokesperson Jim Shivers tells Monterey County Weekly. “Typically when these projects are completed, Caltrans and their contractors are out of the way.”

The original bridge closed February 15 after heavy rains caused hillside supports to collapse. The old bridge was demolished in March and a new one constructed in five months time.

“We did seven years of work in about seven months,” Shivers told the Mercury News. “It’s pretty remarkable what work has been done here, it’s really amazing.”

The Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge should not be confused with the Bixby Bridge, the area’s iconic and photogenic span.

As for when the Highway One entrance will reopen, that’s anyone’s guess. In May, the “mother of all landslides” smothered PCH south of Monterey with roughly five million cubic yards of material blocking access to Big Sur.

• Big Sur: Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge to open Oct. 13 [Mercury News]
• Big Sur’s Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge to reopen Oct. 13 [Monterey County Weekly]
• Big Sur landslide: Caltrans to build road over rubble [Curbed SF]
• Time-lapse video shows Big Sur bridge reconstruction [Curbed SF]