Quick Take
The project on Green Valley Road in Watsonville is causing some noticeable traffic delays, specifically during the morning and afternoon rush hours. However, that will be a thing of the past come springtime, when the road project will be completed. Meanwhile, crews in Scotts Valley worked through Saturday night to help get main artery Mount Hermon Road back open after a tornado tore through the area.
South County residents traveling Green Valley Road in Watsonville might have found themselves caught up in severe rush hour traffic in recent months, but that will not be permanent, thankfully.
The $8.4 million project along Green Valley Road, in progress since the summer, seeks to bring much-needed changes to the well-traveled thoroughfare. That includes five new Santa Cruz Metro bus stops and shelters, but most notably, it replaces a run-down dirt trail alongside approximately 2 miles of the roadway with a two-way multi-use trail. The multi-use trail will have a landscape buffer separating the path from the roadway, allowing safer travel for cyclists and pedestrians in the area north of Freedom Boulevard and south of Monte Vista Christian School.
While the road is heavily traveled, it is also historically unsafe. County Community Development and Infrastructure spokesperson Tiffany Martinez previously told Lookout that between 2017 and 2021, there were five reported bike and pedestrian collisions. According to California Highway Patrol data, a handful of other accidents have been recorded on side streets that connect to Green Valley Road including Minto Road, Dick Phelps Road and Pioneer Road. The project also aims to better connect Watsonville to the northern unincorporated parts of South County.
Like many other projects throughout the county, such as the Coastal Rail Trail, Soquel Drive overhaul and the pedestrian overcrossing component of the Highway 1 expansion project, the Green Valley Road changes aim to get people out of cars and encourage them to bike, walk or take the bus more frequently.
Currently, crews are building a new 10-foot-wide concrete path that runs about 2 miles from Holohan Road to Mesa Verde Drive, a significant step in improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians. That will be completed with improved road crossing signage and signals, as well as new landscaping and art installations.
However, the construction has caused some major traffic delays.
Drivers have likely run into backups as they try to turn onto Green Valley Road from Amesti Road, even though the trail is nearing completion at that section of road.
Typically, there is a left- and a right-turn lane that leads to Green Valley Road from Amesti Road. But crews have been working on the intersection, and Martinez said construction is cutting into the right-turn lane, which funnels all of the drivers heading to Green Valley Road into a single turn lane whether they are turning left or right. That work will come to an end – planned for spring 2025 – when crews finish striping the roadway.
“This is only temporary until final striping is completed near the end of the project,” said Martinez. “But it is having significant impacts on traffic moving through the intersection.”
Once the striping is completed, there will be two turning lanes once again, with a dedicated bike lane in between. Martinez said the county hopes the changes will make things safer for everyone.
“We expect that with all these improvements we’ll see fewer accidents between cars, pedestrians and bicycles,” she said.
Crews will continue grading and drainage through the end of the year, after which they will begin the final push to pave and stripe the new pathway. Paving is slated to finish in February, with the project expected to be entirely wrapped up later in the spring.
Mount Hermon Road reopens after tornado
Mount Hermon Road between Lockwood Lane and Scotts Valley Drive is open again after a tornado tore through the area on Saturday afternoon, injuring five people, flipping cars and toppling trees and utility poles.
Crews from Pacific Gas and Electric worked through Saturday night to repair damaged equipment and restore power, the Scotts Valley Police Department said in a social media post. Of the five people who were injured in the tornado, three were taken to hospital and one was admitted for continuing treatment.
The National Weather Service said the tornado lasted for five minutes, from 1:39 p.m. to 1:44 p.m, Saturday and reached wind speeds of up to 90 mph. It started near the intersection of Mount Hermon Road and Lockewood and traveled about a third of a mile southeast, stopping just short of Kings Village Road. The weather service classified the tornado as a “weak EF1,” a rating of a tornado’s intensity that means it can have wind speeds between 65 mph and 110 mph and can cause moderate damage.
Read Lookout’s coverage of the tornado.
Board of supervisors votes to close Paulsen Road in the winter
Paulsen Road in Watsonville frequently floods during the winter, sometimes trapping motorists in deep water. Due to the emergency response it requires and the damage vehicles can cause to the road, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously last Tuesday to add the road to the county list of seasonally closed streets.
The board will take a second read for final adoption on Dec. 17.
Latest news
Check out our Carmageddon road delay list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
- The on-ramp to southbound Highway 1 from Bay Avenue in Capitola has been closed since late September to allow construction crews to build a new ramp. Drivers can take a detour north on Porter Street to Soquel Drive, then east to Park Avenue, where they can rejoin Highway 1. They may also head south on Bay Avenue to Park Avenue, and rejoin southbound Highway 1 there. Caltrans expects the ramp to reopen Dec. 29, a month later than the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s earlier estimate.
- Curb and gutter work will shut down the right shoulder of the northbound Highway 1 and northbound Soquel Drive off-ramp between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. from Monday through Wednesday.
- Southbound Highway 1 will be fully closed overnight from 9 p.m. on Tuesday to 6 a.m. on Wednesday. Then, there will be a closure of the right lane of northbound Highway 1 from 9 p.m. on Wednesday to 5 a.m. on Thursday.
- There will be either a full closure or a right-lane closure of northbound Highway 1 between Soquel Drive and 41st Avenue beginning at 9 p.m. on Thursday and running until 5 a.m. on Friday.
- Paving, tree work, utility work and slope repair will close down sections of Highway 9 from Monday through Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those sections are between Lazy Woods Road and lower Glen Arbor Road, lower Glen Arbor Road and California Drive/Middle Road, Vernon Street and Camp Sycamore Road, Arboleda Way and Scenic Drive, Pike Road and Irwin Way, Prospect Avenue and Lorenzo Avenue, and Mitchell Drive and Stapp Road.
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