Quick Take
A City of Santa Cruz open house last week provided updates on some of the major projects currently in progress and others expected to begin this year. Planners also gave attendees an early look at other spots on the to-do wish list.
The laundry list of transportation projects throughout the city and county of Santa Cruz continues to grow, with a focus on projects that improve options for pedestrians and cyclists and reduce traffic congestion. Some of the biggest, like Highway 1 expansion and the Coastal Rail Trail, are well underway, while others like Soquel Drive improvements will ramp up in the coming months.
Those projects were the focus of the City of Santa Cruz’s open house last Monday, when around 50 residents stopped by to catch up on progress for the ongoing projects and learn about more that are still months or years out.
Perhaps the most significant upcoming project involves the Murray Street Bridge (officially the Glenn E. Coolidge Memorial Bridge), which has been decades in the making. The goal is to strengthen the bridge with additional pilings and an improved foundation so it can better withstand earthquakes. Crews will also widen the sidewalks and bike lanes to improve safety. City of Santa Cruz Public Works assistant director Kevin Crossley said work is expected to finally get off the ground in October.
Crossley said it’s a complicated project that will require various closures along Murray Street, which is one of the area’s main east-west arteries. Importantly, there will be a monthlong period when the entire bridge is closed so that crews can safely position heavy machinery for one of the project’s nine phases. He added that the eastbound direction will be closed for the majority of the project, which is expected to take 2½ years to complete.
“Just because something’s out of date with the current seismic code doesn’t mean that it needs to be updated right away,” he said. “But this is a critical piece of infrastructure because of the amount of traffic it sees.”
Another project getting off the ground this summer will introduce improvements to bike and pedestrian infrastructure on Bay Street on Santa Cruz’s Westside. Between this summer and summer 2026, the city will push forward on a five-phase project that includes protected bike lanes and pedestrian path improvements along the entire length of Bay Street.
Bay Street between California and Mission streets will see a new two-way separated bike lane, new bus stops with improved shelter and seating and Americans With Disabilities Act improvements to sidewalks like textured ramps for safer and easier navigation. The section between Escalona and Nobel drives will see similar changes, along with a new pedestrian path on the northbound side of Bay Street.
City transportation planner Claire Gallogly said the project will improve bus times for UC Santa Cruz students and protect bicyclists and pedestrians better on a main Santa Cruz thoroughfares — one that gets a lot of use by Bay View Elementary and Mission Hill Middle School students, too.
“Parents worry about their kids along these routes, so we’re formalizing how people are expected to go through there,” she said. “It’s going to be a really good example of moving everyone better.”
Another pedestrian/bicycle-focused project is in very early stages – currently just a concept. That includes major intersection and bike lane improvements at the Delaware Avenue-Swanton Boulevard intersection as well as at the intersection at Delaware Avenue and Natural Bridges Drive. The city is exploring the possibility of installing a roundabout at the latter location as well.
The project is in its infancy, and city associate professional engineer Dan Estranero and engineering technician Christopher Martinez shared a diagram of what they envision the final product to look like. Last Monday was the first time the project was shown to the public — but it is still just a concept, and tangible plans are still far out.
Martinez said engineers envision a bike lane suited for faster, more intensive riding and a separate lane for recreational or beginner cyclists. “It’s a little bit of everything for bikers — more comfortability and you get to pick a travel option,” he said.
Estranero said the city identified the intersections as high-priority areas for improvements, explaining that each grant cycle prompts planners to revisit those areas.
“We have a list of intersections that could possibly benefit from projects, and fortunately, these two intersections are so big, we have the real estate to actually implement something like a roundabout,” he said.
Since public works hasn’t even entered the design phase yet, the public input period won’t begin for some time, but Estranero said the sooner the department can get the ball rolling, the better: “We were hoping to start really, really early with this, because it would be a somewhat higher-profile project.”
Latest news
Check out our Carmageddon road delay list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
The full closure of Highway 1 between the Bay Avenue/Porter Street and Park Avenue exits Caltrans postponed last week has been rescheduled to start on Saturday, April 6, at 7 p.m. and run through Sunday, April 7, at 7 p.m. Crews will use this 24-hour closure to safely demolish the Capitola Avenue overcrossing and haul materials away.
The Pure Water Soquel water purification project continues to move forward, and its current work will affect parts of Laurel Street in Santa Cruz. The installation of an architectural cover for the piping along the Laurel Street bridge will continue this week between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., shutting down one lane of eastbound Laurel Street.
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