Highway 1 north of Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge now open

California Highway Patrol has opened Highway 1 south to the Big Sur Station, just before the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge. They will have a post there to turn drivers back around.

As for Rick Aldinger, General Manager of the Big Sur River Inn, the past three weeks have been really difficult. Business down 99% of daily revenue. He and many other businesses north of the crumbling bridge are excited to welcome the public back to Big Sur.

“The weather’s been great, spring break is upon us, so it’s a good time to get this wrapped up and get the highway open,” said Aldinger.

But despite this portion of Highway 1 being open, the Big Sur Community is still divided as the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge awaits demolition.

“We’re hoping that we can get those [issues] resolved,” added Aldinger. “That we can encourage our elected officials to put as much pressure on Caltrans and give as much support to Caltrans as they can.”

The out-of-commission bridge continues to create a lot of challenges for everyone in Big Sur, included ‘Fred the Mailman’.

U.S. Mail Contractor Frederick Hillard has been working around the clock to bring residents their mail on both sides of the failing bridge.

“People who are not employed now need to get their mail for their unemployment benefits and things like that,” said Hillard. “Plus there’s a lot of medication needed along the Central Coast.”

But his route has completely changed. He now needs to go down Highway 101 south to Highway 46 west and back up Highway 1 to reach those on the south side of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge. Hillard says his normal route is about 140 miles roundtrip, this new route will be nearly 600 miles roundtrip.

“We’re preparing for it now, we’re U.S. Mail Contractors, this is our contract for the U.S. Postal Service, and we make it happen,” said Hillard.

And moving forward, the businesses north of Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge say they’re hoping Pfeiffer Big Sur and Andrew Molera State Parks will open soon as well.