Highway 1 to Close South of Ragged Point

The road to Big Sur will be blocked this week by work on a viaduct and retaining wall between Ragged Point south to San Carpoforo Creek Bridge. Highway 1 will close completely from Wednesday around 11:55 p.m. through Thursday at 6 p.m., presumably after the forecast rains end. Caltrans’ Polar Star Project will stabilize that portion of the highway in a $4.1 million project by Souza Engineering of San Luis Obispo. Emergency responders will be able to get through while the concrete pour goes on. Electronic message boards are in place to warn travelers of the closure, which was set for Monday-Tuesday before the current rain forecast.

The name of the project comes from several mercury, or quicksilver, mines up Carpoforo Creek, according to the Cambria Historical Society, that were worked around the previous turn of the century, before the toxicity of mercury became known.