Carmageddon: County’s annual road maintenance program enters final stretch

There are just about two months left in Santa Cruz County’s annual road maintenance program, which spans the entire county and includes both urban and rural roads.

Monday, the county begins the final round of work in South County, which will focus on both main arteries and rural roads in and around Watsonville, including Green Valley Road, Eureka Canyon Road and Buena Vista Drive

On Friday, the county wrapped up its North County roadwork, which began in late June and took place on largely rural mountain roads such as Bear Creek Road north of Boulder Creek, Mountain Charlie Road, Empire Grade Road, Bonny Doon Road and Smith Grade Road. The final step was laying new pavement on certain areas of the roadways that have noticeably damaged asphalt, referred to as “patch paving,” according to county Community Development and Infrastructure spokesperson Tiffany Martinez.

The Mid-County roadwork, which ran from late April through late June, preceded that, and included roads such as Jarvis Road north of Scotts Valley, and Laurel Road, Schulties Road and Morrell Road near the summit between Soquel San Jose Road and Highway 17.

Every year, the county takes about six months throughout the spring, summer and fall to work on local roads and get them into their best possible conditions for the winter season, when necessary maintenance is often more difficult to perform due to wet, stormy weather.

Since the program began in May, the work has included a mix of different things, including drainage clearing on rural highways to prevent flooding, cutting overgrown vegetation and repaving where needed — all important issues to address before it begins to rain more frequently.

“The whole point of this is so that we can ensure the longevity of our roadways and ensure that they last, especially through the wintertime, but also beyond that for residents that travel these roads every day,” said Martinez.

The South County round of roadwork will involve the same kinds of work that has taken place across the county over the past four months and will cover six roads in particular, and will occur on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Throughout August and September, those will be Green Valley Road from Pioneer Road to Sans Road from Monday through Sept. 4, Eureka Canyon Road to Dove Lane from Sept. 5 to Sept. 12, and Casserly Road from Whiting Road and Green Valley Road from Sept. 15 through Sept. 26.

Heading into October, crews will move to Calabasas Road between Bradford Road and Koenig Road from Sept. 29 through Oct. 10, Buena Vista Drive up to Larkin Valley Road from Oct. 13 through Oct. 17, and San Andreas Road between Playa Boulevard and Seascape Boulevard from Oct. 20 through Oct. 24.

Work will take place only on weekdays between 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Martinez said it is not expected that any of these roads will be closed entirely, but commuters should expect intermittent closures of a single lane along these roads that could cause minor delays in the morning and afternoon when traffic is heavier.

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Check out our Carmageddon road project list here. This week, pay particular attention to:

• The Highway 1 off-ramps at Park Avenue in Capitola are closed as part of the Highway 1 expansion project. The southbound off-ramp is scheduled to be closed until October. The northbound off-ramp was closed in April and and is slated to stay closed through August.

• The Highway 1 on-ramp at Park Avenue is closed for five months in order for crews to reconstruct the ramp. Northbound travelers will be directed to take Soquel Drive to Porter Street to join northbound Highway 1 at the Bay Avenue/Porter on-ramp. Southbound travelers will be directed to exit Highway 1 at the Bay/Porter off-ramp, continue on Bay Avenue to arrive at Park Avenue. The ramp is expected to reopen in November.

• Pavement, guardrail and erosion control work will shut down about 1 mile of Upper East Zayante Road on weekdays from Aug. 11 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 at 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 is slated to 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.

• 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 Prospect Avenue and Lorenzo Avenue, Riverdale Park and Monaco Lane, Graham Hill/Bennett Street and San Lorenzo Way and California Drive/Middle Road and Prospect Avenue from Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 2 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., and is expected to last through Oct. 31.

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