Quick Take
The City of Santa Cruz is installing a new sewer pipe along Front Street just blocks from the beach, Boardwalk and wharf this summer. Although traffic impacts are not expected to be serious, travelers are likely to see some occasional slowdowns around the work sites and less parking at the southernmost end of Front Street.
Beachgoers should keep a summer project in mind on their way to Santa Cruz’s Main Beach, Beach Boardwalk and wharf this summer — but there shouldn’t be too much of an impact.
Starting in early July, a few sites along Front Street, Chestnut Street and Pacific Avenue will see work crews installing a new sewer pipe that runs from around Kaiser Permanente Arena on Front Street to Neary Lagoon — the largest pipe in the city’s sewer system, said Assistant Director of Public Works Kevin Crossley.
The pipe is approaching the end of its useful life, Crossley said, and restoring it is vital for the city to continue efficient wastewater treatment operations.
The $4.7 million project involves using a “cured-in-place” method, which involves inserting a fitted tube inside the pipe without having to dig large trenches across a large portion of road. Crossley said it’s the best choice to keep summer traffic flowing.
“We went into this trying to mitigate impacts as much as possible,” he said, adding that there will be no full closures of any roads in the project area. “That would have had a major impact on traffic in that area.”
Most of the road work will happen in the center of the roads, keeping lanes in both directions flowing freely, albeit with minor slowdowns as drivers maneuver around the barriers and traffic-control measures stationed around the work site; there will also be some very limited night work. But it’s all unlikely to cause any major disruption.
“On heavy visitor days, that area is already impacted with traffic,” said Crossley, adding that most notable will be the loss of some street parking along Front Street. “Whether there’s a project there or not, it will be slow-moving.”
One might ask why the city is working on a heavily traveled part of the road near the beach right in the middle of summer. Crossley said there is no other option.
“We have to do this in our dry times, when sewer levels are low,” he said. “There’s a major constraint on when we can do this project.”
Crossley said the city is planning to wrap up the project by mid-September, before the rainy season takes hold. Even so, weather can always cause unforeseen delays.
“We tend to think of September and October as some of the warmest times around here, but we have to plan for the worst weather despite that,” he said.
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Check out our Carmageddon road delay list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
- Drainage work, tree work, and bridge work will cause one-lane traffic control on various sections of Highway 9 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. In these stretches, there will be one lane open with a traffic light controlling the flow of traffic in both directions. Those areas are the sections between Camp Sycamore Road and the Paradise Park exit, Henry Cowell Redwoods Vista Point and Glengarry Road, Lower Glen Arbor Road and Arboleda Way, Alba Road and California Drive/Middle Road, and Prospect Avenue and Lorenzo Avenue.
- The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency’s College Lake project will shut down one lane of traffic on Highway 129 between Bridge Street and Main Street in Watsonville, which will result in one-way traffic control from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday through Friday until June 30. Travelers should expect delays of up to 15 minutes.
- Through the end of 2024, various sections of Soquel Drive between State Park Drive and Paul Sweet Road could be reduced to one lane of traffic as the Soquel Drive Buffered Bike Lane and Congestion Mitigation Project moves forward. The sections of road will be intermittently closed as work continues at multiple sites.
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