Big Sur Valley business, travelers react to opening of Mud Creek on Highway 1

After over a year of closure, Mud Creek along Highway 1 is finally opening back up to travelers on Wednesday.

A massive mudslide destroyed much of the roadway back in early 2017, affecting much of the tourism industry down in the Big Sur Valley.

The Big Sur River Inn along Highway 1 is bustling again, but for a while, things were not the same.

“Business has declined, of course, during these events to varying degrees. Anywhere from 10 to 15 percent below normal to as much as 40 to 50 percent below normal,” said Rick Aldinger, the general manager of Big Sur River Inn.

Aldinger says both the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge reconstruction and the mud creek closure impacted business. That in turn, affected the workers at the inn.

“There were periods when we simply were not able to employ our normal workforce,” said Aldinger. “So there were a lot of people at the River Inn and the Big Sur Valley, a lot of people out of work for varying periods of time.”

Cars are now already speeding through Highway 1 along Mud Creek. Caltrans says the repairs have cost $54 million.

“(The closure) wasn’t gonna stop us one way or another. We were gonna come back, if we had to back track, we would back track,” said Scott Russo, who was visiting Big Sur on Wednesday. “The fact that (Highway 1) is open is a plus because then we can just see more of California.”

The new roadway extends 250 feet closer to the ocean than the original. It is going to be protected by a series of nets, embankments and other stabilizing material.

“We expect business to return to normal. We don’t expect that overnight,” said Aldinger. “There have been a lot of people waiting for this day and a lot of people are going to take advantage of the fact that the highway is open.”

“It’s nice that it’s finally going to be open again. I got a buddy from San Luis Obispo that I might actually give a call and tell him he can make his way down here if he wants, it’ll be really nice,” said Kyle Munson, who also was visiting Big Sur.

Crews will continue repairing portions of Mud Creek in the coming months.

Caltrans is set to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open up the road to the public this Friday at 11 a.m in the Ragged Point Inn lawn area.