Higgins Canyon Road construction begins in Half Moon Bay

Purisima Creek Road, the alternative route during the closure, has been a source of concern for residents, whose original worries around driving the steep, windy road during the rainy season resulted in a three-month postponement of the construction — slated to begin in January.

If Higgins Canyon residents can commit to creating a pedestrian walkway through neighbors’ backyards, the county will be able to establish safe parking lots on either side, Mueller said, allowing for greater access and vehicle leeway for residents who might not want to take the detour. The county won’t be able to build a path of its own on private property or create a path through the construction zone itself because it would be a serious safety hazard.

“There really is no way that anyone can walk safely through the site,” Mueller said, citing 20-foot deep excavation necessary to reach safe building material for the new road. “What we’ll do, we’ll go ahead and build on both sides of the construction site, an area where people can park their cars. But it’s between the neighbors to cross that, the county’s not taking responsibility for that.”

Higgins Canyon Road connects residents in a fairly isolated, technically unincorporated area of the county to downtown Half Moon Bay. The road was seriously damaged in several areas by 2023’s atmospheric rivers, and construction on a damaged upward section concluded at the end of December 2023.

Now, construction on the lower portion of the road is necessary from a safety standpoint as well as to maintain homeowner’s insurance for neighboring houses, Mueller said. While residents also want the road fixed — it has serious structural problems — they say the county’s management of the problem has been subpar.

“I think that the county is doing a really haphazard job. They should have known that things were going to be an issue. They were in a position to understand all the ramifications,” Higgins Canyon Road resident Charles Shafae said.

A family living on Shafae’s property does not own a vehicle and walks or bikes into town for work and school nearly every day, he said, and moving would be challenging and expensive.

Neighbor Cathy Hammer, whose property a potential path might run through, maintained that creation of a walkway would be complicated and likely require resources to create, which was worrying to Shafae.

“I see from what she’s saying is kind of impossible, but we’re gonna have to do something,” he said.

Higgins Canyon resident Gail Evenari has a variety of concerns about the construction: She empathizes with residents who don’t have vehicles and is worried about emergency services access to the area. On a personal level, she won’t be driving at night until construction is finished to avoid Purisima Creek Road.

“This is sort of perilous on a very human scale,” she said. “For me, it’s more like I feel shut up when I can’t go out at night. I also feel concerned, which we didn’t talk about at all today, about our emergency access.”

Ann Stillman, director of San Mateo County Public Works, said the contracted construction firm will be working to excavate sliding material to rebuild a strong foundation for the road, which was damaged in last year’s winter storms.

“I think, hopefully, the pain, the duration of pain will be worth the payoff,” she said. “If we can all just sort of hold onto it and work to get it done and work together, that’s what we need to do.”