San Antonio closed for pathway work

By Mary Brownfield, Carmel Pine Cone

A busy entrance to town was shut down this week so crews could rip out vegetation and begin work installing a new footpath linking Carmel and Del Monte Forest. Drivers intending to travel on San Antonio Avenue between Fourth Avenue and the Pebble Beach gate will be rerouted until the work is completed in early June — just in time for the crowds to use it walking in and out of Pebble Beach during the U.S. Open golf tournament.

“It will be completed in time for the Open,” Carmel planning and building services manager Sean Conroy said. “It’s understood that’s the whole reason we’re starting when we are.”

The walkway is the first phase of a plan to improve pedestrian access at the north end of the beach and is being done in collaboration with the Pebble Beach Co., which has taken the lead on the project. The city and the company are sharing the costs.

P.B. Co. officials hired Graniterock’s Pavex Construction Division to install the path along the west side of San Antonio, which includes removing plants and clearing the right of way, building a retaining wall and adding a curb ranging from 6 to 8 inches in height, filling the area with decomposed granite, erecting a grapestake fence along the west edge and replacing some of the vegetation between the fence and the residences.

Carmel Police Cpl. Steve Rana said drivers heading from Carmel into Pebble Beach will be diverted from San Antonio at Fourth Avenue to northbound Carmelo Street, then west on Second Avenue and back onto San Antonio just before the gate.

The road to the Carmel gate from 17 Mile Drive will be closed to traffic heading the other way, so people driving to Carmel from Del Monte Forest will have to use the Hill Gate at Highway 1, where drivers will be directed south to enter town.

“We want to minimize traffic into Carmel,” through the San Antonio gate, Rana said, to avoid tieups with northbound drivers using the detour. “There is going to be signage at the Hill Gate encouraging people to use Carpenter and Ocean.”

He also said flagmen will be at the site directing drivers when necessary. Residents along the affected stretch should have no trouble getting into and out of their driveways.

Construction is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, ensuring San Antonio Avenue will be open to through traffic on weekends and during the evenings.

“It’s a four-week project, and we’re asking people to be patient,” Rana said. The city expects the work to be completed by June 4.

Conroy said the city is grateful for the P.B. Co.’s lead role.

“To have them doing most of the legwork, with our limited staff at this point, is very beneficial,” he said.

The San Antonio Avenue walkway is the first phase of a project that should be finished before the end of the year, according to Conroy. Other improvements include installing a boardwalk through the dunes and replacing a set of stairs down to water’s edge at the north end of Carmel Beach near the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links.

“That will be done sooner, rather than later, as well,” Conroy said. “We’re just finalizing some of the details with the coastal commission.”