WATSONVILLE—Rodriguez, Union and Brennan streets will soon undergo much-needed pedestrian safety improvements.
Those three sections of Watsonville’s downtown corridor were tabbed for the first phase of the City’s Downtown Complete Streets Plan, an extensive document that sets a roadmap for a slew of street improvement projects in the area.
Over the next three years the City will make $380,000 worth of crosswalk improvements and also add several extended curbs, also known as bulb-outs, along the roads that will total roughly $1.65 million.
The City Council unanimously approved the project list for Phase 1 at its Tuesday meeting.
The Council will revisit the Downtown Complete Streets Plan in 2022 and make a decision on the next phase of projects. That phase could include a reduction of lanes on Main Street.
The so-called road diet, however, is contingent on the results of an ongoing traffic study, which is required because Main Street, East Lake Avenue and East Beach Street are part of State Route 152, a Caltrans thoroughfare.
The traffic study is expected to be completed in 2022.
That is around the same time the City predicts its Downtown Specific Plan will be completed. That document will serve as a blueprint for the future of downtown by setting guidelines for housing, parking, economic development and the look and layout of streets and public spaces, among other things.
The next public meeting for that plan will be on March 26 from 5-8 p.m. in the Watsonville Public Library Meeting Room.
The Downtown Complete Streets Plan calls for roughly $27 million of work that will take at least a decade to complete. Much of the cost will be paid by grants, a plan of attack that could stretch the completion date by years, according to City staff.
Complete list of Phase 1 improvements:
Crosswalks
• Rodriguez Street (Main St. to W. Lake Ave): $125K
• Union Street (Alexander St. to Riverside Drive): $100K
• Rodriguez Street (Second St. to Riverside Drive): $75K
• Brennan Street (E. Lake Ave. to Freedom Blvd.): $80K
Bulb-outs
• Rodriguez Street (Main St. to W. Lake Ave.): $750K
• Union Street (Alexander to Riverside Drive): $500K
• Rodriguez Street (Second St. to Riverside Drive): $400K
