Santa Cruz Changes 137: Highway 1 update

A July 30 ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening of the "whale bridge" to pedestrians and bicyclists crossing Highway 1 at Chanticleer Avenue. The bridge completed the first of three phases in CalTrans current plans for the heavily-used freeway. 

During its construction, the usefulness of the bridge suffered two successive blows: first, Kaiser Permanente pulled out of its planned large healthcare development on Soquel Avenue (Hwy 1 frontage road), near the southern end of the new bridge. The main goal of the bridge was to provide a direct walk/bike connection from the new Kaiser facilities to related Dominican/Sutter facilities to the north of the bridge. 

The county reacted to the loss of expected healthcare-related bridge traffic by putting off planned walk/bike improvements to Chanticleer Avenue north of the bridge - most of the street lacks any such non-vehicular amenities (not even sidewalks). It remains to be seen whether future developments will remove the "bridge to nowhere" status. 

The active work sites now move a bit farther east in phase 2 (the eventual phase 3 end point is at Freedom Boulevard). Reconstruction of the Capitola Avenue overpass is scheduled to be completed in November. The narrow old bridge had skinny sidewalks and no bike lanes, so the new wider version will be an improvement.

The Capitola Avenue overpass lies between two interchanges. The westernmost, at Bay Avenue/Porter Street, serves Soquel to the north and Capitola to the south. The next interchange to the east is at Park Avenue, heavily used for access to Cabrillo College. SCCRTC announced that Park Avenue on/off ramps that have been closed for improvements are scheduled to reopen on September 3 (a bit ahead of schedule!). 

In the same announcement, closure of the Bay/Porter interchange was to be the next day, September 4. An update, however, says the closure will be delayed indefinitely, until further notice. No reason was given in the brief update, so we'll watch for news about that.

Santa Cruz Changes 136 - Car-free access to the North Coast

After decades of efforts by local preservationists, two large Areas of scenic North Coast land have been permanently closed to development, and are now open to outdoor recreational activities. 

At the north end of Cement Plant Road out of Davenport, where it crosses Highway 1 to become Davenport Landing Road, is a new parking lot and trailhead for the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument, which just today opened several trails to the public. SCMTD bus 40 will get you (and your bike) to Davenport, about 1.5 miles from the multi-use trailhead.

Meanwhile, work continues on Segment 5 of the Coastal Rail Trail, which will extend from Wilder Ranch State Park to Davenport. When completed in 2026, it will create an off-highway bike route from Santa Cruz to the new NM.

The other large public-land acquisition is not right on the coast, but inland from the former cement plant outside of Davenport, accessible from Empire Grade Road. The Santa Cruz-based Trust For Public Land led a coalition that acquired the large tract now known as San Vicente Redwoods in 2011, and has opened the first 8.5 miles of planned public multi-use trails into the area. For now, the only access point is a parking area on Empire Grade Road, 12.5 miles up from UCSC, so not accessible car-free except to the hardiest bikers (bus 41 only goes as far as Bonny Doon). Trail pass registration (free) is required. Hikers/horseback riders/mountain bikers can sign up at TPL.

Santa Cruz Changes 135: Murray Street bridge closure impacts

 

The March closure of the Murray Street bridge at Santa Cruz Harbor for seismic retrofitting has impacted nearby businesses because of the reduced vehicle traffic. A belated effort is now underway to improve pedestrian and bike access via the adjacent railroad bridge.

Santa Cruz Local reports that:
"Thursday, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission unanimously voted to allow the City of Santa Cruz access to the Santa Cruz Rail Line Bridge across the harbor for a potential temporary walking and biking path. The city would need permission from Progressive Rail, which [has a contract of freight operations on] the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, but does not use it north of Watsonville. The Santa Cruz City Council is set to consider pursuing a temporary path on the rail bridge at its Tuesday meeting." 

The photo above (looking toward Santa Cruz) shows the rail bridge to the right of the vehicle bridge. I took a walk across the bridge last week, passing a number of other walkers and bike walkers (riding a bike under current conditions is difficult). It's not a problem for pedestrians, but it seems to me that providing a safe and usable bike path on that bridge would be difficult (and probably expensive), even though it would only be temporary.

The idea is that allowing and/or restoring pedestrian/bike usage of the rail bridge would help to offset the loss of vehicle traffic. I'm skeptical that it would make much difference - there wasn't very much pedestrian/bike traffic over the vehicle bridge before its closure. That stretch of Murray Street has always been a scary place to walk or ride, and improving those unsafe conditions is a secondary goal of the bridge work that's happening now. Since completion of the Arana Gulch ped/bike bridge, safety-minded pedestrians and bicyclists can now take the Broadway-Arana Gulch Open Space-Brommer Street route. Normally, there's easy walk/bike access from the Open Space to both sides of Santa Cruz Harbor, but the bridge work means those paths will sometimes be closed. 

It might seem better and simpler to accelerate the Rail Trail improvements already planned for that section, which is in the middle of Segment 8. Unfortunately, the existing rail bridge is not wide enough to accomodate addition of a ped/bike trail, so the schematic plans published to date envision an entirely new bridge parallel to the rail bridge. It's unlikely that a new Rail Trail bridge could be built faster than the work on the existing vehicle bridge that's already underway.

Still, I think temporary pedestrian/bike improvements to the rail line from Seabright Avenue to 7th Avenue are worth consideration. The Santa Cruz City Council meeting is at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 809 Center St., Santa Cruz and online.