Watsonville officials broke ground Thursday on an $11.7 million roadway project that will finally widen the narrow Harkins Slough Road overpass that roughly 1,500 students have walked along each day for the past 22 years. The ceremony took place on the slope below Hotel B5 near Harkins Slough and Silver Leaf Drive, marking the start of construction meant to separate those students from vehicle traffic once and for all.
According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the project will widen the Harkins Slough overpass over Highway 1, add a concrete barrier between bike and vehicle lanes from Silver Leaf to the overpass, and build 300 feet of new sidewalk. The city's own council agenda report confirms the scope includes widening the Harkins Slough Rd. overpass over Highway 1 to accommodate bike lanes and a wider pedestrian sidewalk separated from vehicular traffic, according to the City of Watsonville. The work also includes more than a mile of buffered bike lanes along Harkins Slough and Green Valley roads.
A Three-Decade Wait Finally Pays Off
Watsonville Principal Engineer Patrice Theriot said the new concrete barrier will give pedestrians and cyclists far more separation from vehicles than the current setup allows, per the Sentinel's reporting. The city has been chasing a fix for this stretch of road for a very long time: Watsonville first acquired property in 1996 to pursue a Harkins Slough/Highway 1 interchange with northbound ramps, and that interchange project received funding as early as 1998 before it was dropped by 2014 once funding grew scarce, the Sentinel reports.
The turning point came when Senate Bill 1 opened up new funding streams for bike and pedestrian improvements in 2017, and the Watsonville City Council approved a $321,830 Caltrans planning grant the following year. The city's Complete Streets to School Plan won approval from both the city council and the Pajaro Valley Unified School District board of trustees in 2020, laying the groundwork for the project now underway. KSBW reports the overpass improvement had been discussed for more than three decades and became a priority when the high school opened 22 years ago, according to KSBW.
Grant Came on the Third Try
The $11.7 million Active Transportation Program grant that is funding the bulk of the work was not an easy get. It took Watsonville three attempts to land the competitive ATP grant, and when the city finally won it in 2021, its application notched the sixth-highest score among applicants statewide, as the state distributed roughly $285 million across 50 projects that cycle, according to The Pajaronian. The grant was also included in the city's broader 472-page Complete Streets-Safe Routes To School plan covering potential safety projects at 15 Watsonville schools.
Granite Construction is performing the work, the Sentinel reports, and the city's council agenda report shows the firm submitted the lowest bid among three contractors at $8,987,200.95, undercutting Granite Rock's $9,494,397.10 and Patriot Contracting's $11,418,103 bid. With a 4% contingency added, Watsonville's total contract award comes to $9,346,688.95, per the agenda report. The project was determined categorically exempt under CEQA Guidelines Section 15301, Class 1, with Public Works staff filing a Notice of Exemption with the Santa Cruz County Clerk.
Beyond the Overpass
The work extends well past the overpass itself. Plans call for safety improvements at feeder schools, including ADA-compliant curb ramps, high-visibility crosswalks and flashing beacons, and the city's agenda report specifies reconstructing curb ramps at seven schools to comply with current ADA requirements. The project will also relocate a sanitary sewer force main and add Class 4 bike lanes on Green Valley Road.
KSBW reports the finished project is expected to connect students and residents to biking and walking trails west of Highway 1, adding a walking path and a separate bike path both protected from traffic by a concrete barrier. Much of the overpass-widening work is expected to happen at night, the station notes, while flagging operations through the overpass will run as needed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to CRUZ511.
On timing, accounts differ: KSBW reports the project is expected to be completed in about a year, while CRUZ511 states a completion date of October 20, 2027. Watsonville has tackled similar fixes on this stretch before — a previous Harkins Slough Road safety project added lane striping, two lighted crosswalks, bike lanes and new signage, and reconfigured lanes to create bike lanes with green buffer zones marked by delineators, per The Pajaronian. The city has also discussed a similar roadway safety project for Pennsylvania Drive between Main Street and the traffic circle at Clifford Drive.
Students and Officials Turn Out
Thursday's ceremony drew five city council members, including Jimmy Dutra, Eduardo Montesino, Maria Orozco and Ari Parker, along with Casey Clark attending as mayor pro tempore. Pajaro Valley High School teacher Martha Vega brought students from her public safety class to witness the groundbreaking, and senior Emily Sanchez told the Sentinel the project would improve student safety on the commute to school. Resident Anna Kammer arrived by bicycle for the occasion, accompanied by her husband, Dan Fallorina.
For a road that has carried roughly 1,500 students a day along a narrow sidewalk for more than two decades, the shovels finally in the ground Thursday represent the end of a long, winding path through shelved interchange plans, grant rejections and incremental fixes — and the start of a project meant to make that daily walk considerably safer.
