Quick Take
West Cliff Drive repairs continue moving forward as winter draws closer, with several major components expected to wrap up by mid-December. While a few projects will not be finished until early to mid-2025, one-way traffic could make a return along the entirety of Santa Cruz's coastal road by early spring, and two-way traffic might be only a few months behind.
As winter quickly approaches, the City of Santa Cruz’s public works department is pushing ahead on major projects on West Cliff Drive — but some will have to wait until spring to cross the finish line. By February, cars could be able to travel westbound on the entire length of the coastal road for the first time in over two years.
West Cliff Drive has been undergoing a series of repairs since it was hammered by the deluge of atmospheric rivers in early 2023, resulting in the closure of at least one direction of traffic on multiple sections of road since then. Over the past two years, crews have worked on numerous projects that range from addressing eroded cliffs and sinkholes to fixing collapsed pedestrian paths and damaged culverts.
While there is still plenty of work to be done to bring the road into a fully travelable version of itself once again, some components will be done by the end of the year.
Miguel Lizarraga, an associate professional engineer with the city’s public works department, said that one of the biggest ongoing projects, the Bethany Curve culvert repair just west of Woodrow Avenue, is expected to be completed in mid-December, although the city originally hoped to finish it by Thanksgiving. Lizarraga said crews still have to pour new asphalt, which is often the last step.
“The king tides that happened were big, and that storm that just happened slowed down most of the work out there,” he said, adding that crews are also installing a trench along the road to run utility wires, preventing the need to dig up the road to access them in the future. That is likely to be finished this week.
Lizarraga said once that is finished, the roadway will likely be reopened to one-way traffic “from Columbia Street all the way through West Cliff.” However, West Cliff Drive will eventually return to two-way traffic, as the city indefinitely shelved its one-way pilot project in April.
The 900 block between Columbia Street and Woodrow Avenue has been closed to traffic in at least one direction for almost two years, due to extensive damage and many active project sites. Earlier this year, a sinkhole opened up at the edge of the pedestrian path, requiring yet another project on a stretch of the road already crowded with other repair work. Fortunately, Lizarraga said, that area is close to being finished as well, with the final paving expected to wrap up on Dec. 13, the same day that the Bethany Curve culvert is slated for completion.
Lizarraga said one final site on that block — located between Woodrow Avenue and David Way, just past Bethany Curve — requires crews to build and install a secant pile wall, a supportive wall that provides protection from groundwater and strengthens an excavation area. That, too, is expected to be finished by mid-December. That will allow two-way traffic to return to the 900 block, and one-way traffic to return to the 1000 block on the other side of Woodrow.
Even though much of the major work is close to finished, Lizarraga said that a site on the 1000 block just west of Bethany Curve is a very involved project that requires filling a sea cave that runs far underneath the road. Lizarraga said the complexity of that project meant “a lot of back and forth” with the design team and geotechnical engineers to land on the best solution.
“The consensus is that we’re going to fill the sea cave, make it safe, and then build a wall on top of that filled sea cave,” he said. “Construction started on that about a month ago.”
If all goes smoothly, and weather permits, that is expected to wrap up by mid-February. That would open the door for two-way traffic to be fully restored to all of West Cliff Drive.
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Check out our Carmageddon road delay list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
- The on-ramp to southbound Highway 1 from Bay Avenue in Capitola has been closed since late September to allow construction crews to build a new ramp. Drivers can take a detour north on Porter Street to Soquel Drive, then east to Park Avenue, where they can rejoin Highway 1. They may also head south on Bay Avenue to Park Avenue, and rejoin southbound Highway 1 there. Caltrans expects the ramp to reopen Dec. 29, a month later than the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s earlier estimate.
- Curb and Gutter work will be present on the right shoulder of the northbound Highway 1 and northbound Soquel Drive off-ramp between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. from Monday through Friday.
- Slope repair and utility work will close down sections of Highway 9 from Monday through Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those sections are Lazy Woods Road and lower Glen Arbor Road, lower Glen Arbor Road and California Drive/Middle Road, Arboleda Way and Pike Road, Irwin Way and Prospect Avenue and Lorenzo Avenue.
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