Quick Take
The Santa Cruz City Council will consider approving the design and plans for both the West Cliff Drive roadway relocation and improvements to the Bay Street corridor, including protected bike lanes and a pedestrian path.
Two pedestrian infrastructure projects are scheduled to come before the Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday.
The West Cliff path realignment, separate from the city’s future effort to relocate a portion of the road itself, aims to improve safety on the pedestrian path along West Cliff Drive where coastal erosion has damaged it.
The roughly $497,000 project involves two areas of the path. One section is near Lighthouse Point, and the goal is to remove the portion of path closest to the seawall and bluff and improve the safety of the wider section of the path near the road. The city also expects to install new fencing, native landscaping and relocated benches and other monuments.
The second location is farther west near Getchell Street, where the city plans to move the path away from the eroding cliff and closer to the roadway. The project will move a bench and garbage bins currently in the area, but it also means that eight parking spots will be removed. The city is aiming to begin construction by the end of the year.
Up the hill from West Cliff Drive, another transportation project serves to bolster and improve the pedestrian and bicycle facilities along Bay Street, a busy corridor that serves as a main artery for UC Santa Cruz students and faculty.
The improvements to the Bay Street corridor have been in the works for several years, with some already implemented. The $5.4 million improvements span the length of Bay Street, from the main entrance to UC Santa Cruz all the way to West Cliff Drive by the Dream Inn, and involve expanding bike paths, removing some bus stops and removing auto lanes in some areas.
The first phase, which stretches from Escalona Drive to Nobel Drive/Iowa Drive, was completed last year. It includes a one-way separated bike lane on each side of Bay Street, along with converting a northbound auto lane and the shoulder into a protected area that shields both cyclists and pedestrians from vehicles. The project removed one lane of car traffic, leaving a single lane in each direction.
On Tuesday, the city council will consider approving one of two options for the intersection of Bay Street and Escalona Drive, one of the top 10 intersections with the most collisions in the city. Staff recommends a “quick-build” project that would install a median that keeps the left turn from downhill Bay Street onto eastbound Escalona Drive, but prevent drivers from passing across Bay Street from Escalona to continue on Escalona.
The council could also approve plans for future intersection changes at Anita Street and Toledo Street. After meeting with neighbors in the area, staff is recommending installing medians on Bay Street at these intersections, which would allow only right turns from and off of Bay Street. If approved, the city would aim to implement the changes in summer 2027.
The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday in the city council chambers at city hall, 809 Center St., Santa Cruz.
Latest news
Here’s what’s happening this week on our roadways:
- Utility and shoulder work is shutting down one lane in various sections of Highway 9 from Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Those sections are between Pike Road and Western Avenue, Spring Creek Road and Riverside Drive, Pool Drive and Old County Highway, Ramona Drive and Stapp Road, and Mitchell Drive and the Camp Campbell entrance.
- Shoulder work is causing an overnight closure of the southbound Park Avenue off-ramp and the northbound Park Avenue on-ramp at northbound Highway 1 in Capitola from Monday through Thursday between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.
- The southbound Highway 1 off-ramp at Bay Avenue in Capitola is in the early weeks of a four-month closure that began Aug. 2, as crews reconstruct the ramp as part of the bus-on-shoulder facility.
- Bridge work is currently shutting down alternating lanes of Highway 9 between Pool Drive and Old County Highway and Riverdale Park and Monaco Lane until April 30, 2027.
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