Why Hearst Castle could stay closed through summer. It has nothing to do with COVID
In another blow to North Coast tourism, State Parks says Hearst Castle will likely remain closed at least through this summer after potentially serious drainage problems were discovered beneath the road leading up the hill to the state historical monument.
The news comes at an unfortunate time, as state and county governments prepare to lift all pandemic restrictions on June 15 and Castle administrators were looking forward to welcoming visitors back soon.
Now, no matter what happens with COVID-19, it appears the hilltop will remain inaccessible to the public for the near future.
Studies of the danger areas could start as early as Monday, April 19, with the aim of defining how extensive and potentially dangerous those underground problems along a portion of the 5-mile road may be, said Dan Falat, superintendent of the state parks district that includes the Castle.
Falat, responding to an inquiry from The Tribune, said that according to a contract finalized earlier this week, a company called Geocon will do geotechnical studies on the highest 2.25 miles of the access road’s parallel upper sections.
The study area stretches from the cattle gates where the two-lane road splits to accommodate the estate’s Pergola, up to the separate entrance and exit gates leading into and away from the estate’s compound at the top of the hill.
The superintendent estimates the $32,000 studies, which “will include ground-penetrating radar, core sampling and assessments to get a picture of and formal report about what’s going on under the road, if anything,” could take from four to six months to complete. Any repairs would have to be done after that.
Falat said his staff had noticed the roadway problems in February, during increased infrastructure inspections after a late January storm brought torrential rain and strong winds to the hilltop.
Good news on Hwy. 1, bad news on Castle
Word of the problem at Hearst Castle came as Caltrans announced it would reopen Highway 1 through Big Sur by April 30, two months earlier than originally planned.
It was runoff from that same January storm that washed away a 150-foot section of the scenic highway, cutting off access along the coast.
“We recognize the Castle’s significance to the community,” Falat said. “We’re hoping the studies won’t find anything major, but just a simple problem to fix. Part of what this report would include is not just what is wrong, but what solutions are needed to stop the problem and get back into business, and if there are temporary fixes.”
If the damage proves to be less severe, those temporary measures might include using one lane of the road while the other lane is being fixed, then switching sides. If that could work, Falat said, the Castle might be able to reopen more quickly than if both sides required serious repairs, which would be done concurrently.
For now, Falat said State Parks is “erring on the side of caution, rather than risk public safety. The goal for us, once COVID restrictions allow it, is to reopen the Castle as soon as we possibly can, safely.”
The process of assessing the road problems, Falat said, “is in the very early-on stages, so it’s hard to predict. We have to make sure we can put buses back on that road safely.”
How they found the problems
During the closure while the public hasn’t been at the Castle, state park staffers have increased their inspections, repairs and projects that would have been difficult or impossible to accomplish with tours coming through every 10 minutes during the busy season.
In February, hilltop maintenance staffers noticed sinkholes forming near culverts in the uphill sections alongside the road that leads from the Visitor Center to the Castle, Falat said. Those were the first signals that something was wrong underground, where troubles are almost impossible to spot without sophisticated studies.
Falat and engineers from State Parks examined the two most damaged culvert areas, including pavement undulations around them.
They decided they had no choice but to immediately stop traffic on the road by most pieces of heavy equipment, especially the tour buses, which have still been running the route occasionally to “exercise” the equipment.
State park and Hearst Ranch staff continue to use the road as needed, but only using passenger vehicles and light trucks. What equipment will be needed for the road repairs is yet to be determined.
Julia Morgan designed the road … and the culvert system
The steep and often winding roadway probably followed a rough vehicle path established by Hearst family members in the late 1800s and early 1900s, on their way to their favorite camping site, dubbed “Camp Hill.”
When Castle construction began in about 1920, architect Julia Morgan likely converted the path into a hard-packed, gravel-topped road, putting in a culvert system to carry runoff away from the new surface, Falat said. The paving didn’t happen until after William Randolph Hearst’s death and the family’s subsequent donation of the estate to the state in early 1958. The first public tours were given in June of that year.
Sometime soon thereafter, State Parks, Caltrans and the Hearst Corp. worked together to pave the access road from Highway 1 to the hilltop estate, Falat said.
That pavement is still there, although it’s been patched many times since then, with the most extensive recent repairs having been done after big storms in 2017.
The road problems triggered déjà vu for some longtime area residents. They recall that citizens and business owners, concerned about many problem areas in the Castle’s access road, formed the independent nonprofit Hearst Castle Citizens Committee to raise funds that would backfill State Parks’ recession-diminished budget.
Ultimately, the state found the money to fix the road, and the committee converted into the Friends of Hearst Castle cooperating association, which in April 2019 became The Foundation at Hearst Castle.
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 11:34 AM.
