Carmageddon: RTC targeting fall 2026 completion of North Coast rail trail

Construction on the North Coast rail trail stretching from Wilder Ranch State Park to Davenport is about to get underway this month, prompting the closure of an informal parking lot for the better part of the rest of the year.

The informal parking lot, along the coastal side of Highway 1 in Davenport, is set to be closed for the duration of the project starting May 18. Along with the construction of the trail, crews will be making improvements to the parking lot itself, turning it into a formal parking area, as well as installing a new pedestrian crossing on the highway between Davenport and the coastal side of the road.

The project will include utility installation and new signage and other amenities, such as an improved parking lot at Bonny Doon Beach. Other additions, like a new paved parking lot and restrooms at Panther/Yellowbank Beach, are already finished and have been open to the public since April.

The North Coast rail trail, also known as Segment 5, involves three phases of construction, the first two of which are included in the current project. It will stretch 7 miles from Davenport to Wilder Ranch State Park, where it joins the existing Wilder Ranch path and continues onto Segment 7, which runs from Natural Bridges Drive to the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf.

The final phase of the project involves the construction of the Cotoni-Coast Dairies Highway 1 overpass to connect the rail trail on the coastal side of the road to the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument on the inland side of the highway. Environmental review wrapped up in 2024 for this phase, and it is expected to begin construction in 2027.

There could be one-way traffic control measures implemented at times during construction, and coastal access from Highway 1 near the parking lot will not be available. Access at other locations in the project area could also be limited.

The ambitious Coastal Rail Trail has run into a number of planning and financing issues, particularly pertaining to the Mid-County segments, which faced significant cost overruns. In December, that led the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) to decide to build 8 miles of the trail over the tracks between the San Lorenzo River trestle bridge in Santa Cruz and State Park Drive in Aptos to make the project less expensive. 

Despite those troubles, the various segments have been moving along slowly but surely. The part of Segment 7 that stretches from Natural Bridges Drive to the intersection of California and Bay streets on Santa Cruz’s Westside was completed in 2020, and the more challenging second phase of the project that runs from that intersection to the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf finally finished in 2025, after a number of setbacks.

If all goes as planned, pedestrians and cyclists could have nearly 10 miles of continuous, usable trail by the second half of 2026.

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Here’s what’s happening this week on Santa Cruz County roadways:

• Electrical work, tree work and utility work are shutting down one lane of Highway 9 between Hihn Street and San Lorenzo Valley Elementary School, Glen Arbor Road and Coon Heights Road, River Street and Lorenzo Avenue and Spring Creek Road and Riverside Drive from Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.

• Final paving for the Newell Creek Pipeline Project is shutting down a single lane of 3.6 miles of Graham Hill Road between Roaring Camp Road and Henry Cowell Drive from Monday through May 22. One-way traffic control measures will be in place.

• Roadway excavation is shutting down the southbound Highway 1 on-ramp at Park Avenue in Capitola through Aug. 19.

• Various roadwork operations will shut down one lane of northbound and southbound Highway 9 through the end of August between Cascade Avenue and Irwin Way in Brookdale.

• There is a six-week auxiliary lane closure of the southbound auxiliary lane between Soquel Drive in Live Oak and 41st Avenue in Capitola for guardrail work.

• Emergency sewer work in Soquel Village could occasionally block access to driveways, sidewalks, on-street parking and interrupt sewer service on weekdays until June 30, on Soquel Drive, Porter Street and Main Street. Work on Soquel Drive will be overnight from 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Porter and Main streets. Shorter-duration pothole repair work on Porter, Main and Center streets and Daubenbiss Avenue will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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