Quick Take
Santa Cruz County officials say they’re applying for state funding to help support infrastructure improvements following intense storms in 2023, affecting residents around the Pajaro Valley.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is asking the state for more than $13 million to pay for infrastructure improvements to help prevent further flooding following intense storms in 2023, which affected hundreds of residents in the Pajaro Valley.
The $13.7 million in state funding would pay for three major projects in South County: flood repairs to Paulsen Road outside Watsonville, repairs to flood walls along the Pajaro River levee, and a countywide culvert replacement program. County staff plan to apply to the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program.
Fixing Paulsen Road is a high priority, according to county staff. The road is prone to flooding and has been closed repeatedly. Repairs will include raising the road and installing new culverts beneath it to allow water or storm runoff to flow through. That project is estimated to cost nearly $6.9 million; nearly $3.5 million of the funding would go to replacing old culverts countywide that would help mitigate localized flooding during heavy rainfall.
The funding will also support repairs to flood walls along the Pajaro River levee, specifically along the north side of Salsipuedes Creek, an area that was heavily impacted by flooding when the river breached in early 2023.
Roxanne Grillo, deputy director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency, told Lookout that the $1.7 million that would be allocated to this project would help increase the height of the flood walls to protect residents living near Salsipuedes Creek.
Separately, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is leading the reconstruction of the levees, a project that received an additional $54 million in federal funding with the help of U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff. Crews have already started work on the first reach of the river, said Grillo, and are expected to continue through summer. The new money will fund the construction of the next reach and the design process for the rest of the project, she said.
The project, calculated to cost nearly $600 million, has secured about $203 million in federal funding, Grillo said, adding that the agency continues to work closely with federal officials to secure remaining money needed.
In 2023, PRFMA and the Army Corps of Engineers greenlit the construction of a new Pajaro River levee, which marked the culmination of a nearly 70-year struggle to replace an inadequate levee system.
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