San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
CARLSBAD DELAYS PLAN TO REALIGN HIGHWAY 101
Carlsbad is getting another year to work on plans to realign 1 mile of Highway 101, called Carlsbad Boulevard in the city, as part of its effort to adapt to sea level rise.
“Our original plan was to bring you a recommendation ... in order to meet the February 2023 deadline for the South Carlsbad Boulevard Climate Adaptation Project,” said Katie Hentrich, the city’s climate action plan administrator, at last week’s City Council meeting.
Instead, Carlsbad obtained a one-year extension to February 2024 to complete the preliminary work funded by $533,175 in grants the city received from the California Coastal Conservancy in 2020 and 2021. Final designs and construction costs are not covered by the grant money.
“Based on the feedback from our outreach with some of the most affected property owners, the city asked for a time extension for this project so we can work through their comments and concerns,” Hentrich said in an update presented to the City Council.
The extension will allow time to further vet the realignment options and to complete a traffic study requested by the city’s Traffic and Mobility Commission, city officials said.
Residents of Solamar Drive have expressed concerns about how the changes would affect access to their homes.
Also, some people have raised the possibility that realigning the road, along with changes proposed along South Carlsbad Boulevard, could lead to additional coastal development.
“People realize that this stretch of coastline is a gem,” said Nikki Matosian, a community relations manager for the city. “It makes Carlsbad special,” and people want “to preserve the natural look and feel of it.”
The city has proposed moving one mile of Carlsbad Boulevard’s southbound lanes, between Manzano Drive and Island Way, to the east to more closely parallel the northbound lanes. The northbound and southbound lanes are separated by as much as 200 feet in that stretch, and the southbound roadway nearest the shore is in danger of erosion and collapse.
Periodic flooding of the lowest area along Las Encinas Creek results in occasional lane closures and leaves cobblestones on the roadway during storms and the highest tides of the year.
In addition to moving the southbound lanes, the city is considering reducing the number of lanes from four to two, with one travel lane in each direction, and adding roundabouts, sidewalks and wider bicycle lanes.
The goal is to create “an environment where people can slow down and enjoy the scenery,” Hentrich said.
Three options are being studied for the realignment. One keeps the four lanes and has traffic signals, not roundabouts. Another reduces the road to two lanes and has four roundabouts instead of the traffic signals. And the third option would use three roundabouts and turn lanes with a pedestrian crossing instead of a roundabout at Solana Drive.
Carlsbad Boulevard already has single-lane sections in two places farther north, one at a roundabout near the Oceanside border, and another just north of Manzano Drive at the intersection with Cannon Road.
All three realignment options include converting the southbound roadway nearest the beach into a wide trail for bicycles and pedestrians. That would separate people on foot and the slower bicycles, such as beach cruisers, from the buffered bike trails used by faster cyclists along the highway.
“As the the coastline erodes we probably will have further iterations (of the trail) and move it inland as we need to,” said Tom Frank, city engineer and transportation director.
South Carlsbad Boulevard is one of the busiest routes for bicycle riders in San Diego County, he said. A survey in September 2021 showed it had about 800 riders on weekdays and more than 2,500 per day on weekends.
Carlsbad City Council members, with Mayor Matt Hall absent, all expressed support Tuesday for realigning the road. But not everybody was on board with shrinking the highway to two lanes with roundabouts.
“It’s way overdue ... but I’m not a fan of two lanes and will support four lanes,” said Councilmember Keith Blackburn.
Other council members praised the work done so far without committing to one of the three options.
“As a coastal city, sea level rise adaptation is necessary,” said Councilmember Teresa Acosta. “We have to look at what is happening to our bluffs, our coastline. I’m looking forward to seeing something really great there.”
Carlsbad Boulevard was a federal highway that carried up to 40,000 vehicles a day in the 1950s, said Councilmember Peder Norby. Traffic dropped significantly with the construction of Interstate 5 in the 1960s, and today Carlsbad Boulevard carries less than 15,000 vehicles a day.
The highway has been realigned several times since it was built in the 1920, Norby said, and it’s time for another change.
“I think it’s one of the greatest opportunities that Carlsbad has ahead of it,” he said.
“It will be an amazing asset,” said Councilmember Priya Bhat-patel.