Quick Take
A project area tour of West Cliff Drive showed the progress that crews are making on major storm repairs as winter draws closer yet again — and highlights the “unprecedented” amount of work happening on the scenic coastal road.
Major projects underway to repair storm damage on West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz represent an “unprecedented” level of work on the scenic coastal road, Santa Cruz city officials said during a tour of the project Wednesday. They’re hopeful some of the projects will be complete by the end of the year.
During the tour, Assistant Director of Public Works Kevin Crossley discussed and explained work on a stretch of West Cliff Drive between Columbia Street and Woodrow Avenue that has been closed to two-way traffic for more than 18 months. He talked about a sinkhole that opened up in the area earlier this year, and the intent of a Bethany Curve culvert repair.
Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker spoke to the huge effort it took to get all of the work going in the past few years.
“Kevin and our construction team are being modest about the work that’s underway,” he said. “Really the volume and pace of the projects we have on West Cliff is unprecedented. It will not only allow us to restore two-way traffic along West Cliff, but also protect some of our most vulnerable sections along West Cliff at least for the foreseeable future.”
Crossley said that the stretch between Columbia Street and Woodrow Avenue is in the final stages of a year’s worth of work. The city aims to install a new railing along the ocean side of the pedestrian path next week. However, the sinkhole that opened up in that same section of road earlier this year has complicated the project, something Crossley said is “going to keep us busy through the remainder of the year.”
Crossley said that the Bethany Curve culvert repair is seeing good progress, too. He added that it was the largest single project site along West Cliff Drive and will cost over $9 million, which will include rebuilding the roadway and installing wall structures that armor the road from the ocean. He said that this project, in particular, was a major collaboration among the city, Granite Construction and members of the Amah Mutsun and Costanoan Rumsen tribes. Although the culvert repair is expected to be completed around Thanksgiving, additional damage from early this year and a sea cave that extends under the roadway will keep the road from opening back up to two-way traffic until next year.
“It’s a very complex project, and we’re really still trying to figure out a final design approach,” said Crossley. “We thought we had one, and then the structural calculations didn’t pencil out the way we had hoped.”
Crossley said that depending on the time of year, the sea cave can be either totally empty or completely inundated with wet sand, complicating work schedules. Granite Construction Project Manager Bryan Adames said crews have already worked through difficult conditions.
“No build is straightforward, that’s one thing you learn in construction. You always run into your own little challenges,” he said. “Battling elements is always tough, like getting those waves coming in and splashing on the road or getting the rain. Then you think, ‘OK, how do we pivot?’”
Adames said having multiple agencies working together has proved beneficial.
“They’ve been open to our input on constructability, which is nice, because every job looks one way on paper, and then it looks a different way when you’re out there,” he said. “So the open communication helped a lot.”
Adames, like Crossley, said crews hope to finish at least the stretch of road between Columbia Street and Woodrow Avenue by the end of the year — and hope for decent weather.
“It’s a dynamic problem, so we’re in high gear and doing everything we can to get this back open,” he said. “But some of those little parts of it will have to remain closed as we continue to improve.”
FUTURE OF WEST CLIFF DRIVE: Read more Lookout coverage here
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 will be closed for two months to allow construction crews to adjust the roadway elevation in line with the bus-on-shoulder lane. 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. The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission expects the ramp to reopen Nov. 29.
- The on-ramp to northbound Highway 1 from northbound 41st Avenue and the on-ramp to southbound Highway 1 from southbound Soquel Drive will be closed between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. from Monday through Thursday for landscaping work.
- Shoulder work will shut down alternating lanes at various sections of Highway 9 between 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. Those sections are between upper Glen Arbor Road and Route 9, Main Street and Route 9, Fillmore Avenue and Route 9, and Hillside Avenue/Miles Street and Mill Street.
- 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. It includes new bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, adaptive traffic signals and updated sidewalks and curbs. The sections of road will be intermittently closed as work continues at multiple sites. Specifically, look out for intermittent single-lane closures between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
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