Pebble Beach's Overhead Lines Are Entering Their Final Stretch, Starting at Lopez and Sunridge

The Pebble Beach Company Corporation Yard sits at the corner of Lopez and Sunridge Roads. In January it becomes the forest's drop-off point for holiday trees. This winter, trenching crews will be working along that same corner. Phase IV of the Pebble Beach Community Services District's utility undergrounding began on September 8, 2026, on Lopez Road near the Pebble Beach Fire Station. From there it heads up Lopez and onto Sunridge and Ronda Roads.

Phase IV is the second-to-last phase of the program. When it is done, most of the Del Monte Forest's main power, phone and cable lines will be underground, with only a short final phase left. The other projects this winter, from sewer mains to a shoreline pump station, are late stages of long programs too. Most of them wrap up in 2027 or 2028.

The last third of a 12-mile job

The district started the undergrounding program 15 years ago. Its goal was to bury about 12 miles of primary power and communication lines across the forest. The district's program page says Phases I through III are complete and together moved six miles of line underground.

Phase IV is the longest phase of the five. At about four miles, it is a little longer than the first two phases put together. It also routes the work through some of the forest's most heavily traveled interior roads. The district says the finished program will mean a lower risk of forest-wide power outages and more reliable service.

How Phase IV moves through the forest

The district's Phase IV project page lists stretches of Lopez Road, Sunridge Road, Ronda Road, Spruance Road, Midwood Lane, Del Ciervo Road and Atajo Way. The new trenches will carry the PG&E, AT&T and Comcast main lines that now hang overhead. The fall newsletter describes the route in order. It starts on Lopez, goes up to Sunridge and Ronda, then wraps around Spruance and down to Del Ciervo.

What residents will see day to day:

• Hours. Crews work Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Traffic. Active work areas will have one-lane traffic control.
• Sequence. The fall newsletter estimates 24 months of trenching. After that, AT&T, Comcast and PG&E install their lines, and the overhead lines and poles come down at the end, which the newsletter puts in 2028. Starting from September 2026, that sequence runs later than the project page's "through the summer of 2028" window, so treat any end date as an estimate.
• Dates by street. Lopez Road is the only route with a posted start date so far. Every other segment on the schedule is still marked TBD.

Because the schedule is still unsettled, the best source for any one street is the district itself. Questions go to Project Manager Chris Simmons, P.E., at (831) 647-5609. The project page also has a mailing list and a resident map.

Below the same roads, a sewer crew arrives in November

Phase IV is about new lines going in. The district's other big job this winter replaces old pipe. Construction starts again in November on about two miles of sewer pipeline. The priority areas are Sunridge Loop, Sunset Lane and the stretch beside the Monterey Peninsula Country Club maintenance yard.

The district's usual pace is about one mile of pipe a year, so this season's two miles is double the typical workload. According to the district, affected residents will get notice before work starts near their property. They will still be able to drive to their homes, and sewer service will stay on throughout. The project is expected to finish in summer 2027. At that point, roughly 20 percent of the community's 83 miles of sewer main will have been rehabilitated.

On the shoreline, a pump station that cannot shut off

The district's third project sits on the 17-Mile Drive coastline north of Seal Rock. The Seal Rock wastewater pump station is a two-story structure built underground. It is the largest of the community's eight lift stations. It pumps two-thirds of Pebble Beach's wastewater up Spyglass Hill Road to the Carmel Area Wastewater District for treatment.

Simmons, the district's principal engineer, explained what makes the job difficult in the fall newsletter. "The main construction challenge is that the pump station cannot be shut down–it must remain in continuous operation at all times to handle the constant inflow of wastewater," he said. In normal operation, two of the station's six pumps run continuously, two switch on during high flows or a failure, and two serve as a third backup. To keep those three levels of backup during construction, the district brought in two trailer-mounted pumps that run on the surface. They will be removed when the work finishes in early 2027. The upgrade adds six new horizontally mounted pumps, a surge tank and access platform, new hatches, vents and fans, and new electrical equipment.

People who drive the coast road may already have seen part of this work. The district's spring/summer newsletter warned that construction fencing would be noticeable south of Bird Rock over the summer.

Spanish Bay, the project you can watch from the road

Pebble Beach Company's own big project runs on a similar timeline. The Links at Spanish Bay closed on March 18, 2026, for a redesign by Gil Hanse and his team. The company lists April 17, 2027, as the reopening date. The Monterey Herald reported the same projected date in March.

Some of the work is visible from 17-Mile Drive. The company's August 26 update says crews started on holes 7 through 9, which run along the drive, and then moved on to the greens on 10 through 12. The biggest change is on holes 13 and 14. The old par-5 that played back toward the ocean has been split into two holes. One is a straightaway par-4 aimed at the same view, and the other is a brand-new par-3 14th. Golf Digest reported that the redesign shapes the course between its dune lines and cuts irrigated turf by 12 percent. It also reported CEO David Stivers saying the project returns more land to environmentally sensitive areas than it takes.

The reopening is set for spring, a couple of months before a much bigger event. Pebble Beach Golf Links hosts the U.S. Open in 2027, its seventh time.

The forest's calendar, November through 2028

Here are the construction milestones alongside the season's household and resort dates:

1. Thursday, November 12. Macallan dinner at Pebble Beach Resorts.
2. November. Sewer replacement begins on Sunridge Loop, Sunset Lane and next to the MPCC maintenance yard.
3. Tuesday, November 17. Dom Pérignon dinner at Stillwater. The TaylorMade Pebble Beach Invitational runs November 17 through 22.
4. Thanksgiving week. GreenWaste pickup moves back one day. Thursday, November 26, service shifts to Friday, November 27, and Friday service shifts to Saturday, November 28.
5. December 25 and January 1. Each day's pickup moves to the following Saturday.
6. December 31. Extra-material stickers expire, and new ones arrive by mail in January. The Inn at Spanish Bay holds its 21-and-over "Starlight Soiree" for New Year's Eve, with tickets at $525.
7. January 1. Bulky-item service resets to three pickups per household, so any pickups left in your 2026 allotment need to be scheduled before then.
8. January 4 through 15. Curbside holiday-tree pickup on your regular collection day. Trees taller than six feet need to be cut into segments.
9. Through January 31. Trees of any size can go to the Corporation Yard at Lopez and Sunridge, where the Phase IV trenching route runs.
10. Early 2027. The Seal Rock pump station work wraps up, and the temporary surface pumps are removed.
11. April 17, 2027. The Links at Spanish Bay reopens.
12. Summer 2027. The sewer replacement is finished.
13. 2028. Phase IV wraps up and the overhead lines and poles come down. After that, about two miles of overhead line remain for Phase V.

The district asks residents to be patient with the one-lane closures in the meantime.

If your street is on the Phase IV route and you plan to sell or buy before the poles come down, the timing affects how the property shows and how you schedule things. J.R. Rouse Properties Group follows Del Monte Forest projects like this one street by street, and we're glad to help you plan a sale or purchase around them. Schedule a free consultation.