APTOS — Transportation officials have planned a series of full overnight closures in one direction later this week and early next for a section of Highway 1 near Soquel and Aptos as they march forward with a major widening project.
Both southbound lanes of the highway between Park Avenue and State Park Drive will close from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting Sunday night and lasting for four consecutive nights, according to a release from Caltrans. The closures will end at 6 a.m. Sept. 26 and no additional closures have been planned for that weekend.
A detour will direct southbound travelers off at Park Avenue and take them to McGregor Drive before rejoining the highway at the State Park Drive onramp. Local traffic will be detoured onto Soquel Drive or McGregor Drive to access State Park Drive, according to the release, with delays of 10 minutes or less expected.
The closure will give space to workers that will be installing a series of drainage crossings that involve saw-cutting existing pavement, excavating trenches and installing culverts before backfilling the trenches.
The construction work is all part of the second phase of a project from the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission aiming to establish a combination of bus-on-shoulder facilities and auxiliary lanes along the highway from Santa Cruz to Freedom.
The second phase alone, which broke ground in April and stretches from Bay Avenue/Porter Street to State Park Drive, is estimated to cost $78 million and is expected to be completed by September 2026.
