Quick Take
After the Murray Street Bridge reopened last week for the first time since last June, the City of Santa Cruz is continuing to gauge the feasibility of allowing two-way vehicle and bicycle traffic along the one opened lane, and hopes to make a decision within weeks. Also, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission will continue moving forward with assuming common carrier status along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line at its Thursday meeting.
The City of Santa Cruz finally opened the eastbound lane of Murray Street Bridge last Wednesday following a seven-month closure that began in late June 2025. The public works department hopes to decide within weeks whether and how the bridge can accommodate two-way traffic.
The partial reopening allows vehicles and bicycles to travel east over the bridge, and pedestrians to walk both east and west. The reopening marks the end of the bridge’s longest full closure to date, and the longest anticipated full closure of the entire project, which is on schedule to wrap up in January 2028.
MURRAY STREET BRIDGE: Read Lookout’s coverage of the ongoing retrofit project
City of Santa Cruz public works spokesperson Ashley Hussey told Lookout the city is considering using temporary traffic control signals. Those are frequently placed in areas with extended lane closures in one direction, allowing alternating traffic flow in each direction in the open lane. Staff need to determine if the configuration is feasible within weeks.
“This evaluation includes safety, traffic operations, emergency access, and construction constraints,” Hussey said in an email.
The next full closure is scheduled for June through August while crews relocate a wastewater pipeline. Two other short closures are currently scheduled for February 2027 and December 2027. Those are expected to last one week and two weeks, respectively.
RTC preps for trail planning assuming removal of tracks, moving forward with terminating contract with Progressive Rail
A threat of litigation from Progressive Rail isn’t fazing the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), which will move forward to become the common carrier on the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line at its meeting on Thursday.
The commission will also vote to enter a cooperative agreement with the city and county of Santa Cruz for environmental design and right-of-way aspects of trail Segments 8 and 9, as well as amend the cooperative agreement for Segments 10 and 11 to reflect the new trail plan. It will also consider adding $70,000 in Measure D funds for oversight involved with the segments. Currently, the plan assumes the removal of the existing tracks between the San Lorenzo River trestle near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and State Park Drive in Aptos, but according to the agenda report, the city and county of Santa Cruz will consider ways to build the trail without removing the rails or completely covering them as the parties work on the project design.
The RTC issued a notice of termination of the contract with Progressive Rail on Jan. 15, but the commission needs to vote to approve the move before the agency can officially begin the process of voiding the contract. It will take that vote on Thursday.
The decision is largely in response to the commission voting in early December to build 8 miles of the Coastal Rail Trail on top of the tracks, rather than next to them as was previously planned, in an effort to complete the project within budget and on time while retaining a $96.6 million grant from the state. However, this move was likely going to need to happen eventually, according to RTC Executive Director Sarah Christensen.
The Capitola Avenue bridge is open once again
In case you missed it, the Capitola Avenue bridge opened to traffic over Highway 1 between Capitola and Soquel for the first time in nearly two years on Friday. Locals and transit officials are both pleased to see the lengthy project finally wrapped up after several delays. Read more here.
Latest news
Check out our Carmageddon road project list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
- Tree work, pavement repair, and utility work are shutting down one lane of Highway 9 between Hihn Street and San Lorenzo Valley Elementary School, Riverdale Park and Monaco Lane, and Pool Drive and Old County Highway from Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
- The closure of the southbound Highway 1 off-ramp at State Park Drive in Aptos for soundwall construction is slated to run through Feb. 10. Travelers can exit at Park Avenue, make a left, then turn right onto southbound Soquel Drive, where they can rejoin State Park Drive.
- 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. Other, shorter-duration potholing on Porter, Main and Center streets and Daubenbiss Avenue will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- The Murray Street Bridge remains closed to westbound vehicle and bicycle traffic. Vehicle traffic detours are along Soquel Avenue and Capitola Road via Seabright Avenue and 7th Avenue. Bicycles are being detoured across Arana Gulch and along Broadway via Seabright Avenue and 7th Avenue.
- The installation of the Newell Creek Pipeline on Graham Hill Road between Summit Avenue and Lockewood Lane is taking place on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and could cause delays of up to five minutes.
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