Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge gets concrete

UPDATE 09/25/2017 8:11 p.m.: The concrete has been poured on Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, and for the first time on Monday, crews were able to walk from one side to the other on the deck.

The old bridge suffered major damage from winter storms and had to be demolished.

“It’s exciting. That means the opening is near,” said Stephen Mayer, who works at the Big Sur Taphouse on the south side.

Businesses welcomed the news, and visitors are squeezing in a last minute hike on the trail that’s been bridging the area.

“I said to Barb last night, we were having dinner and I said why don’t we just go and do the walk because I really wanted to do it,” said hiker Lesley Everett.

Crews have been working hard for this day, first pulling 900 tons of metal beams across the canyon and lowering them to ground level. They worked through weekends and heatwaves.

“When it got really hot … we were really concerned about the heat, but we did have some guys that weren’t feeling well and had to go sit down,” said Caltrans contractor Bob Riggins. “I think at this point, everybody is proud of what we’ve accomplished here but we’d all kinda like to go home to see our families and maybe to have a whole weekend to ourselves.”

With the most challenging tasks behind, everyone has more to look forward to.

“I’m just excited for it to get back to normal and be able to drive home,” Mayer said.

Caltrans said in about three weeks, this bridge will open to the public.

PREVIOUS STORY: Another major step forward in recovery efforts for the Big Sur community.

Caltrans crew are at work right now pouring concrete into the new Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge.

The original bridge was so badly damaged by a mudslide earlier this year that Caltrans had to demolish it.

Since then Caltrans said they’ve worked non-stop to replace it.

“The design process or period is about one year so we were able to expedite that job with designers working seven days a week doing the work of 12 months in about four weeks,” said Jim Shivers with Caltrans.

Now with a new design in place and construction already underway, crews are onto the next major milestone, pouring the concrete.

“Essentially what it is that we’ll begin to pour concrete within the framework of this steel girder bridge and within the well place steel rebar,” Shivers said.

The concrete used is coming from Graniterock construction in Seaside.

“The public can expect to see several large concrete trucks migrating from the Seaside area traveling south on State Route One to the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge area,” Shivers said.

Caltrans says once the concrete pouring is finished they’ll be closer to answering everyone’s main question.

“Once we get through this next milestone of pouring the concrete, we’ll be able to better determine a date of opening but at this point we’re still holding true to October,” Shivers said.

Of course repairing the bridge does come at a cost, Caltrans estimates $24 million.