Quick Take
The Santa Cruz City Council directed city staff to continue exploring a possible bicycle and pedestrian path along the rail bridge next to the Murray Street Bridge last week, in order to offset the project’s negative impact on travel. However, staff still has work to do and funding to find before it can begin construction. While another option for two-way traffic on one lane of the bridge is easier to implement, how beneficial it would be is uncertain.
The Santa Cruz City Council’s plan to help businesses hurt by the Murray Street Bridge closure faces major hurdles, with proposed traffic solutions still expected to take many months and no guarantee they’ll significantly ease congestion, city officials say.
The city council last week approved plans to explore a broad set of relief measures for businesses in Seabright and the harbor that say they are struggling with a sharp drop in customers since the bridge was closed to traffic both ways in June. Among them are two major proposals: create a temporary bike path on a nearby rail bridge and install signals for alternating traffic flow when one bridge lane reopens next spring. But public works officials say the earliest relief wouldn’t likely come until next year, and they worry the traffic control system could result in delays up to 15 minutes for drivers crossing the bridge.
City public works director Nathan Nguyen said that the next step for staff is to develop a design for the temporary path, and eventually go to the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), which owns the rail line, and Progressive Rail, which operates the rail line, for approval on the project. Then, he said, the city would begin looking for funding. He added that a “median point” for the cost of installation and removal of a path is currently about $1.7 million.
Nguyen said that normally something like this could take years. However, if all goes as planned, the city hopes to speed up the process and install a path as soon as early 2026. But he added that it’s uncertain how much the bridge could help relieve some of the pressure that businesses are feeling as a result of the bridge construction, even if it does promote active transportation and gets people out of cars. Essentially, it’s hard to say whether increased bicycle and pedestrian access in the area will make up for the drop in vehicle traffic.
Nguyen said that staff will return to the city council sometime this year to determine next steps for funding and any required permits, like receiving a coastal development permit.
Setting up a two-way traffic control system when the bridge reopens its eastbound lane is simpler, Nguyen said, but would still require temporary traffic signals on each side of the bridge, at a cost of around $10,000 to $15,000 a month to operate. The main concern: If enough traffic piles up on either side of the bridge, that could trigger long waits to get across, since the direction changes only when the bridge is clear of traffic.
“The best-case scenario is roughly a 2½-minute delay,” Nguyen said. “But depending on the amount of vehicle traffic going through, that could end up being five, 10 or 15 minutes.”
Due to this, it’s unclear how much two-way signals on the bridge would help ease congestion along other major east-west streets or bring more visitors to lower Seabright and the harbor. However, Nguyen said that if it works, the city would expect to keep it in place for the other single-lane periods of the project.
“This is very much community-at-large impact, so we’re interested in seeing how this will operate,” he said.
Latest news
Check out our Carmageddon road project list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
- The Highway 1 off-ramps at Park Avenue are slated to reopen on Wednesday at 9 p.m. following months of closure.
- An eight-month closure of the southbound Highway 1 off-ramp and the northbound Highway 1 on-ramp at Bay Avenue/Porter Street has been postponed. It was initially scheduled to begin on Thursday at 9 p.m. The RTC did not provide a new date, but said that one would be announced before construction begins.
- Pavement, guardrail and erosion control work will shut down about 1 mile of Upper East Zayante Road on weekdays through early November between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The road will open up between noon and 12:30 p.m. each day to let traffic pass.
- Shoulder work will cause an overnight closure of one lane of northbound Highway 1 Buena Vista Drive and Rob Roy/Freedom Boulevard from Monday through Friday from 7:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.
- A full closure of the Murray Street Bridge will run until February 2026. It will be closed to vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Vehicle traffic will be detoured along Soquel Avenue and Capitola Road via Seabright Avenue and 7th Avenue. Bicycles will be detoured across Arana Gulch and along Broadway via Seabright Avenue and 7th Avenue. Pedestrians will be detoured around the north harbor.
- One lane of traffic on Main Street in Watsonville, between 5th Street and East Lake Avenue, will face intermittent closures starting Monday through Oct. 3 for construction of a new multi-use building with housing and a restaurant. Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sidewalks in the work zone will be closed.
- The installation of the Newell Creek Pipeline on Graham Hill Road between Summit Avenue and Lockewood Lane will take place on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and could cause delays of up to five minutes.
- Utility work, tree work and striping will close down sections of Highway 9 between Graham Hill/Bennett Street and San Lorenzo Way and Two Bar Road and Old County Highway from Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
- Storm damage repair will shut down sections of Eureka Canyon Road in Corralitos for several months. Work will take place on weekdays only from 7:30 a.m. through 5 p.m. through Oct. 31.
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