Eastern Lomas Santa Fe Drive is getting through its first holiday season as a $7.5 million work zone, and the City says crews will stop work around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
That timing was planned. Solana Beach scheduled the Lomas Santa Fe Corridor–East Improvement Project around school drop-offs, the Del Mar Fair and the year-end holidays. The project starts in the middle of the road and moves out to the curbs in later phases, so the work most likely to affect driveways, sidewalks and bike routes comes after the opening median work. For anyone heading to a holiday luncheon, a Sunday market or the park at the east end of town over the next seven weeks, Lomas should feel a lot like the road they already know.
How the First Weeks Were Set Up
Construction started Tuesday, Oct. 13. Mayor Lesa Heebner and the City Council held the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The project runs from Santa Helena Drive near Interstate 5 east to Highland Drive, the city line near San Dieguito County Park, according to The Coast News.
The City's project page lists the early work crews may start in the first weeks: putting up cones and signs, surveying, marking the ground and digging small controlled test holes, called potholing, to find water, gas and electrical lines. Work hours are 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except on City holidays.
Those hours matter more than they seem to. On every Saturday, every Sunday and every weekday evening after 5:30, the corridor is outside active work hours.
The Work Moves From the Middle Out, East to West
The project has three phases. Both the City and local reporting give the same order: medians first, then the south side, then the north side. Each phase works from the Highland end toward Santa Helena.
| Phase | Where the work happens | What it builds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Center of the roadway | Raised medians planted with native, drought-tolerant landscaping |
| 2 | South side | New sidewalk |
| 3 | North side | Roadway improvements and a 0.93-mile multi-use trail similar to the Coastal Rail Trail |
When the work is done, the road will still have two travel lanes in each direction, plus Class II bike lanes both ways, ADA-compliant curb ramps, storm drain and water-quality upgrades, new seating areas with decorative walls, and changes to signs, striping and traffic signals. City Manager Alyssa Muto described the finished road to the San Diego Union-Tribune as "a wonderful roadway with two lanes in each direction, some beautiful medians, some bike lanes and a lovely multi-use path with vegetation."
Starting in the center keeps the opening months away from the edges of the road, where driveways, sidewalks and curbside access are. The south-side sidewalk and the north-side trail come later.
A Schedule Built Around the Calendar
The City's project FAQ says there will be no construction during the Del Mar Fair and "around Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays." This year Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 26, and Christmas falls on a Friday. As those weeks get closer, the project page and its email updates are the place to check for the pause schedule.
City Engineer Austin Frisby told The Coast News that the phasing was planned with those windows in mind:
"It's really just being mindful of phasing the construction such that we're maintaining one lane in each direction for the duration of the project, figuring out where we can work within the windows of school drop-offs and holiday vacations and those kinds of things."
The one-lane-each-way commitment covers the whole project, holidays or not. Greg Gomez, project manager for Kleinfelder, the City's engineering and construction management firm, said it more plainly in the Union-Tribune: "We're not closing any roads, we'll always have a lane open in each direction at all times." Kleinfelder will also keep a construction manager on site full time to handle safety and communication with the community. The contractor is Tri-Group Construction, which won a $7.4 million contract in May that includes a 10% contingency.
The Season's Trips That Run Along Lomas
The Coast News calls Lomas Santa Fe Drive the city's most significant east-west thoroughfare. That means much of the holiday driving east of I-5 starts or ends on it. Here is how the next several weeks line up against the work schedule.
- Solana Beach Civic & Historical Society Holiday Boutique, Saturday, Nov. 14, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The 73rd annual boutique is at La Colonia Community Center, 715 Valley Ave., with handmade gifts, baked goods and a quilt drawing. It's on a Saturday, so it falls outside construction hours.
- Civic & Historical Society Holiday Luncheon, Friday, Dec. 4, noon to 2 p.m. This one is right on the corridor, at Lomas Santa Fe Country Club. Reservations are due Dec. 1. It's a Friday, so it falls inside construction hours, and arriving with a few extra minutes is sensible.
- Solana Beach Farmers Market, Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. It's at 444 S. Cedros Ave. and is closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Like every Sunday trip, it falls outside work hours.
- Belly Up's December run at 143 S. Cedros Ave. JD McPherson's holiday tour plays Dec. 10, the FABBA disco Christmas show is Dec. 12, David Benoit's Charlie Brown Christmas tribute is Dec. 14, Abbey Road's Christmas show is Dec. 23, and The Floozies play New Year's Eve. Check the venue's calendar for the latest listings.
- San Dieguito County Park sits near the Highland Drive end, where the east-to-west phasing begins. The County lists trails, playgrounds and picnic areas there.
At the west end of the project, the City's planning documents name the Plaza Shopping Center driveway near Santa Helena as one of the corridor's focus areas. The City says access to homes and businesses will be kept open whenever possible, with advance notice of any temporary restrictions where it can give one.
What the Later Phases Bring to the Curbs
After the medians, the project moves toward the edges of the road. During two brief work phases, residents of the Via Mil Cumbres community will be detoured to one of two egress routes, the Union-Tribune reported. The same report said public comments to the Council raised concerns about long delays and drivers cutting through parallel neighborhood streets such as Sun Valley Road. Near Santa Helena and Las Banderas, a new decorative retaining wall will go in.
The plan has been a long time coming. The City started its corridor study in 2017, and in September 2018 the Council directed that all roundabouts be removed from the plan. At the groundbreaking, Heebner called it "one of the capital improvement projects that received the most public input ever," adding, "The focus for the design was safety and multimodal access. And it happens to be beautiful as well." Douglas Alden, chair of BikeWalkSolana, has been involved since 2017. He told the Union-Tribune, "It's going to be a little bit of pain but a lot to gain."
Funding comes mainly from a $7 million Community Project Funding grant secured by Rep. Mike Levin, with the City's Measure S funds and Transportation Impact Fees covering the rest. The City expects to finish in Fall 2027.
The eastern section is only the first piece. The City plans to finalize the design for Lomas Santa Fe west of I-5 next year, and SANDAG awarded $3.5 million for that western portion earlier this year. Frisby told The Coast News that the trail is the part he is most looking forward to: "Having our own coastal rail trail on the east of the 5, I think that's going to be the coolest thing."
To follow the work day to day:
- Project page: cityofsolanabeach.ca.gov/LSFE, which also has an email sign-up for updates
- Helpline: (858) 723-8511
- Email: [email protected]
If you'd like to talk through how the corridor work fits your own plans, Luxury Coast Group Barry Estates is happy to help. Schedule a Private Consultation.
