Ocean Street gets facelift in Santa Cruz

Ocean Street in Santa Cruz is a main thoroughfare to the beach, so it sees it’s fair share of traffic every day. Especially during the busy summer months. Throw in a construction project that knocks it down to two-lanes?

“Just makes it difficult to get around. I mean, there’s a lot of traffic this time of year with all the people coming to the beach and everything,” says Santa Cruz Resident, Eric Rebhahn.

But repaving the heavily-damaged street is something the city has been planning for a long time.

“We’ve already done a lot of work out there. Fixed some sidewalks, curb and gutter, ground-down the street, replaced some of the concrete panels underneath, and now the actual smooth pavings are happening over the next thre e days,” says Santa Cruz Public Works Assistant Director, Chris Schneiter.

The repaving project on Ocean Street from Soquel Avenueto San Lorenzo Boulevard is expected to last from 7AM to 4PM through Wednesday, a project made possible by Measure H tax dollars approved last year by voters.

“It’s been a great boon. We’ve probably got the best conditioned streets in the area because of that, but there’s a lot of work to catch up on,” says Schneiter.

And catching up is key after winter storms pushed all projects back for months.

“Typically we don’t pave our busier tourist streets during the summer, but with the late rains, it pushed all the contractors out, delayed the start of the paving, there’s been a lot of emergency work that these contractors have been doing for the local communities and that’s really had an impact on the other projects,” says Schneiter.

Ocean Street Commuters might be in for a challenge over the next few days.

“I wish they’d do it during the night like most construction. You know, it’s a pain, slows it down,” says Rebhahn.

But the City of Santa Cruz has some advice.

“To avoid Ocean Street if you can. There will be one lane of traffic in each direction instead of two in each direction so find some alternative routes to get to where you’re going,” says Schneiter.

The city is asking for the public’s patience as they work as fast as possible to finish the project.