New bridge opens on Big Sur coast to replace damaged span

BIG SUR, Calif. – California transportation officials have opened a $24 million bridge on State Route 1 that replaces one damaged when winter storms pounded the Big Sur coast and cut the scenic coastal highway in several places.

The Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge opened Friday afternoon following a celebration of the project’s completion just eight months after the old concrete bridge was hit by a landslide.

Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty says such projects normally take several years to complete.

The new structure has 15 steel girders, each weighing 62 tons, that span the 310-foot canyon. It has no support columns, eliminating vulnerability from future slides.

Caltrans says another slide 24 miles south of Pfeiffer Canyon remains active and construction of a new roadway is underway at a slide near the San Luis Obispo-Monterey county line.