The long-awaited new bridge over Big Sur’s Pfeiffer Canyon will open in mid-October, resuming easy access to the coastal retreat for visitors from Northern California, Caltrans announced Friday.

The $24 million span replaces a bridge that was demolished last spring after a mudslide damaged its piers, largely isolating the Big Sur community for seven months. Related Articles Dolan Fire near Big Sur grows, injured firefighters improve, winds move smoke north

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Until its opening, the only way to reach Big Sur from Monterey, Carmel and the San Francisco Bay Area has been by hiking a half-mile public trail from Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park through a forest of redwoods, Douglas firs and ferns.

By road, the only route has been from the east — exiting Highway 101 at King City, driving to Fort Hunter Liggett and then climbing over the Santa Lucia Mountains on remote, narrow and windy Nacimiento-Fergusson Road. There’s no cell service, fuel or other amenities on that road.

This is the second piece of Big Sur news to be announced this month from Caltrans’ road construction team.

Last week, it announced that the southern entrance to Big Sur, over the massive Mud Creek landslide, won’t reopen until late next summer. That means limited access for tourists from Lucia, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and other Southern California cities.

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South of Big Sur, a smaller but also troublesome Highway 1 landslide, called Paul’s Slide, is still active. Caltrans is installing a traffic signal and temporary guardrail on the one-way route.

Work on the new 310-foot, single-span steel bridge over Pfeiffer Canyon was expedited as local businesses saw lost revenue, including such famous spots as Nepenthe restaurant, Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, Post Ranch Inn, Ventana Inn and the Esalen Institute.

“The opening of Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge access to the public is a tremendous accomplishment by Caltrans and will provide critical relief to the community of Big Sur,” said Big Sur native Kirk Gafill, manager of world-famous Nepenthe. “The ability for the Big Sur community to exist in its modern form is almost entirely a function of the access provided by Highway 1.”

But longtime resident Kate Novoa worried that the bridge opening could put new pressures on perilous Nacimiento-Fergusson Road because many visitors will want to drive a loop.

“I will appreciate being able to go north to town again, but I am also worried about the potential increased traffic on Nacimiento — a very dangerous road in its own right,” said Novoa, who lives in South Big Sur and whose blog BigSurKate is an indispensable news source for locals. “Increased traffic by people who are unfamiliar with its conditions will make it that much more dangerous.”

Unlike the famed bridges that cross Bixby Creek, Rocky Creek, Big Creek and others, the old Pfeiffer Canyon bridge was a short and modest structure ignored by even longtime residents. Marked mostly by the change from asphalt to concrete, it looked more like a viaduct.

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But it was geographically essential, linking the southern stretch of Big Sur to northern tourists — as well as schools, medical care, grocery stores, hardware stores, livestock supplies and almost all the locals’ homes, according to Martha Karstens, chief of the Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade.

Its failure stunned the small community. But many grew to love the quiet re-emergence of Mother Nature along the coast, recalling a time when the region was an unexplored and unmapped wilderness.

The original bridge, built in the 1960s, was supported by piers in an erosion-prone canyon. It started to fail in February after heavy rains and slipping soils pushed two of the three pieces off center. It sagged, then fractured.

The new design will be more reliable than the old bridge because it does not have piers, so it’s less vulnerable to erosion. Its foundation is secured by rebar and concrete inside bore holes, four feet in diameter and drilled 100 feet deep into secure bedrock.

This week, the bridge girder lowering process was completed. The deck is now being formed and reinforced and some temporary structures are being disassembled, said Susana Z. Cruz, spokeswoman for Caltrans District 5.

The demolition and new construction has been challenging because of the bridge’s location in a pristine and protected landscape, Cruz said. The contractor on the project is Golden State Bridge of Benicia.

“Restoring this access at such a crucial location will — for the first time in over seven months — allow the community to begin its economic recovery,” said Gafill, president of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce, “allowing families, schoolchildren and the visiting public to enjoy Big Sur to its fullest.”

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