Santa Cruz County nets $30M ‘mega grant’ for Highway 1, rail trail work

APTOS—A $30 million “mega grant” from the federal government will go toward adding auxiliary lanes in one of the most congested areas of Highway 1 in Aptos, while building the next segment of the rail trail as well as bicycle and pedestrian overcrossings.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta announced the grant during a press conference at the entrance to Aptos Village County Park on Tuesday, flanked by Santa Cruz County and Regional Transportation Commission officials.

Panetta said the 11am start of the conference was intentional, as it allowed attendees to be on time and not be stuck in the chronic early-morning Highway 1 congestion.

“For far too often, we have adjusted our lives around traffic on Highway 1 between Watsonville and Santa Cruz,” he said. “For far too often, we’ve been stuck in traffic on Highway 1, and for far too often, when we drive on Highway 1, we spend way too much time in our cars, rather than productive time at work, rather than quality time with our family. We spend way too much on our cars, increasing our carbon output and decreasing our chances to shrink our carbon footprint.”

The $30 million comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1 trillion spending bill signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 meant to go toward updating the nation’s crumbling transportation infrastructure.

The funding will go toward a phase of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz Multimodal Corridor Program that will see auxiliary lanes added on Highway 1 between Freedom Boulevard and State Park Drive. “Bus on shoulder” facilities will also be added, allowing buses to travel on the outside shoulder through interchanges.

In addition, the funding will go toward purchasing four zero-emission buses, and building a one-mile section of the Coastal Rail Trail along the RTC-owned Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line from State Park Drive to Rio Del Mar Boulevard.

The Regional Transportation Commission estimates the total cost of the project is roughly $180 million. A little more than $70 million is secured from the 2016 voter-approved Measure D sales tax, and with the $30 million federal grant, $83 million is still needed to complete the funding.

Environmental work is expected to be complete sometime this year, according to the RTC, with construction possibly beginning in 2025, pending funds.

The Watsonville-Santa Cruz Multimodal Corridor Program, adopted by the RTC in 2019, looks at investments along Highway 1, Soquel Drive/Freedom Boulevard and the Santa Cruz Branch Line to reduce the amount of vehicular traffic and get more commuters using alternative modes of transportation.

Panetta added that the Santa Cruz County project is one of nine across the country to receive similar “mega grants” from the federal government.

“This project will not only help us get out of traffic, it will help us get out of our cars, get to work and get home to our families,” he said.

Supervisor Felipe Hernandez, who represents South County, said thousands of Watsonville residents traverse Highway 1 everyday to their jobs in North County. He added that he makes the commute several times a week, having to leave two hours early in order to make it on time.

“I think about all the Watsonville residents who make that daily commute,” he said. “For them, two hours in that traffic is unacceptable.”

He cited a time in 2016 while serving as mayor of Watsonville, when a group of women organizing a union sought his support to convince their employer to change their work time from 8am to 10am in order to avoid traffic. Because of the time they spent on the congested Highway 1, the workers would have to pay for extra child care, adding up to hundreds of dollars every month.

“This is important for us in South County,” Hernandez said. “Having this multimodal project will allow us to change that highway from a parking lot to an actual highway.”