Quick Take
Two big Santa Cruz County projects installing and improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure are still on track for a late spring completion time, but one of them is slightly delayed due to weather-related setbacks following the atmospheric river earlier in February.
Two projects aiming to improve and introduce bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure on well-traveled Santa Cruz County roads are still on track for late-spring completion, but one will take a bit longer to finish due to bad weather over the past few weeks.
The Green Valley Road remodel — the one experiencing weather-related delays — is an $8.4 million project that involves replacing a rundown dirt trail alongside about 2 miles of the Watsonville roadway with a two-way multiuse trail to allow for safer travel for cyclists and pedestrians on the busy section of road north of Freedom Boulevard and south of Monte Vista Christian School. It will also include five new Santa Cruz Metro bus stops and shelters. Construction began in mid-July 2024, with the goal to wrap up by late February or early March.
Santa Cruz County Community Development & Infrastructure spokesperson Tiffany Martinez said that the county had a ribbon-cutting ceremony slated for March, but the atmospheric river that drenched the county earlier this month had other plans. Martinez said the contractor working on the project is expecting a four-to-six week delay. She said that some of the final touches — a public art installation and a Metro bus stop — require the sidewalk to be completed first, an aspect of the project that was unable to move forward due to the stormy conditions. The ribbon-cutting has been moved to mid-April, weather-dependent.
The other major project heading toward its completion — the Soquel Drive Buffered Bike Lane and Congestion Mitigation Project — escaped weather delays, though, and remains on track for a late spring completion.
The $30 million project covers 5.6 miles of the cross-county artery from La Fonda Avenue in Santa Cruz to State Park Drive in Aptos, which is considered the busiest section of the road, and includes many improvements that aim to get locals, visitors and commuters to bike, walk and take the bus more often. That will include nearly 3 miles of wider bike lanes and another 2.4 miles of protected bike lanes, which include full barriers separating cyclists from cars.
Martinez said this project is moving along as expected, with no storm-related delays. She told Lookout earlier this month that all of the new sidewalks and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramps are completed, but resurfacing, striping, retaining walls and repairing any potholes and placing new signage will be ongoing through May.
Crews will be finishing the installation of the fiber-optic cable running underneath the street through the end of March. That will control new adaptive traffic signals along the road, which will change color based on the real-time traffic volume as well as turn green when they detect buses with the goal of reducing public transit times. By the time the project is complete, that new technology will span a good portion of the county.
“There are fiber-optic installations happening in the city of Santa Cruz from La Fonda to Water Street,” said Martinez. “This entire project is going to connect our streetlights with theirs. That way you’ll have adaptive traffic signals from Water Street all the way down to beyond State Park Drive.”
Latest news
Check out our Carmageddon road project list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
- Caltrans expects the on-ramp to southbound Highway 1 from Bay Avenue in Capitola to reopen on Friday, following a roadway excavation. It 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.
- Tree work and slope repair will close down sections of Highway 9 from Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those sections are between Sunnycroft Avenue and Brown Gables Road, Prospect Avenue and Lorenzo Avenue, and the Camp Campbell entrance and Stapp Road.
- In Watsonville, a single lane on Green Valley Road from Holohan Road to Casserly Road is closed for the Multi-Use Trail Improvement Project. Lane closures occur from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Additionally, a single lane is closed on Buena Vista Drive and Ranport Road for overhead tree trimming on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., causing potential delays.
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