Carmageddon: West Cliff Drive could be open to traffic by year’s end

West Cliff Drive could be open to traffic in at least one direction by the end of the year, and maybe even in both directions if everything goes according to the city’s plans.

Starting Monday, the City of Santa Cruz will finally begin repairing the Bethany Curve culvert damage, which has shut down the stretch of West Cliff Drive between Woodrow Avenue and Almar Avenue to vehicle traffic in both directions for over a year.

The atmospheric rivers during winter 2023 badly damaged multiple sites along the scenic coastal road, leaving several West Cliff Drive sections partially or fully closed to cars. The city has since toyed with different ways to restore access to the various parts of the road.

While the stretch between Columbia Street and Woodrow Avenue has gone through multiple iterations, including both a one-way and a full closure, the section between Woodrow Avenue and Almar Avenue — affected by the culvert failure — has remained entirely closed to traffic since January 2023. But starting Monday, the city is finally beginning the repairs to reopen that stretch.

City of Santa Cruz Public Works Assistant Director Kevin Crossley said it’s a major project that requires work on both sides of the road, with the majority happening on the ocean side since a main goal is to protect the coastline. That starts with stabilizing the area, which sits on top of a sea cave. Crews will inject grout into the cave to stabilize the ground beneath the construction zone. Once that is complete, they will begin rebuilding the walls surrounding the culvert.

Crossley said the city aims to wrap up the project by the end of this year or early 2025 – before any serious weather, he hopes. He said the reason this project couldn’t begin earlier is because of its location right above a waterway, which requires crews to install a stream-diversion mechanism to redirect the stream flowing under the road, providing dry working conditions.

“We had to wait for the weather to be more cooperative to do that type of thing,” he said. “We’re under the gun to get this done in the dry window this year.”

Crossley said he had heard people ask why the city didn’t opt for a bridge to run over the culvert rather than rebuilding concrete walls alongside the road. He said a bridge would not provide the strong coastal protection the agency was looking for, and that rebuilding the walls was the most cost-effective option.

“Waves can crash against [a bridge], as well as above it and below it. We saw this as the most resilient repair option available to us,” he said.

Crossley also said he’s heard questions about why the city could not widen the section of road to accommodate both two-way traffic and a dedicated bike lane. He said that it comes down to California Coastal Commission direction. The agency would not allow the city to build toward the coast, limiting how much the city could expand the roadway.

“The Coastal Commission made it very clear that no seaward encroachment was going to be supported or allowed,” he said, adding that the city worked with those restrictions, and will be able to widen the road in the project area by 2 feet for more room for pedestrians on the path. “It’s not as much as we would like to have, but it’s what we could accomplish within the constraints that we were facing with the project design.”

Other West Cliff work is moving forward, too. The section between Columbia Street and Woodrow Avenue, which was considered for a one-way pilot project until the Santa Cruz City Council shelved it in early April, is on the way to reopening to vehicles. 

Crossley said crews have paved that stretch of road, but still have to address this winter’s storm damages, which include seawall and sinkhole repairs. He said the city has dealt with similar issues along West Cliff before, but it will still take time. He hopes to reopen that stretch to one-way traffic within eight to 10 weeks, and to two-way traffic later this year once the Bethany Curve culvert repairs have progressed further.

While construction is ongoing, bicycle and pedestrian access will be completely prohibited in that section of road. A detour is available via Oxford Way.

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Check out our Carmageddon road delay list here. Pay particular attention to:

The Pure Water Soquel water purification project continues to move forward, and its current work will affect parts of Laurel Street in Santa Cruz. The installation of an architectural cover for the piping along the Laurel Street bridge will continue this week between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., shutting down one lane of eastbound Laurel Street.

Paving over the Pure Water Soquel pipeline is ongoing on Main Street and Walnut Street in Soquel between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Monday through Friday. Lane closures may occur at various parts of the roads.

Tree removal will shut down the onramp at northbound 41st Avenue and northbound Highway 1 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. from Monday through Thursday.

Drainage work and tree work will cause one-lane traffic control on various sections of Highway 9 from 7 a.m. to 5 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, California Drive/Middle Road and Alba Road, and Fall Creek Bridge and lower Glen Arbor Road.

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