On the recordOctober 12, 2017
I am proud to rise today to recognize the reopening of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge in Big Sur, California. After 4 years of drought, my district on the central coast of California finally got the rain it needed, but a little too much. As a result, this year there were many large-scale landslides, including this one, as we see here to my right, which knocked out the pilings of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, causing this bridge to fail. This left a community of people isolated and numerous businesses without revenue for at least 8 months. But over that same amount of time, the people of Big Sur, the people and government of Monterey County, the engineers and construction crews, and the California Department of Transportation demonstrated a lot of grit, guts, determination, and dedication. They listened to each other and came together to fix this bridge. Tomorrow I will be able to attend the opening of this bridge. We will be able to show our pride for the record pace of construction, of government working together to get things done, the businesses that struggled but remained open in Big Sur during this time, and, most importantly, we will show our pride in the people of Big Sur and the communities on the central coast of California. ____________________
