Santa Cruz County working to repair roads damaged from years past

Santa Cruz County officials say they’re approximately 30 percent done with road repairs from 2017 storm damage.

Officials say part of the reason they’re being held up is the federal government.

County spokesperson Jason Hoppins says managers have to get approval from the government first before starting the project, and “when you come up with a project design, they need to look at all aspects of it. So there’s a lot of back-and-forth, then they want to make sure you’re not leveraging damage in one area of the road to fix the entire road.”

Hoppins added that if they fix the road before getting approval, it could cost the county. “We can’t just go out and fix a road and ask for reimbursement because that might not come. Then we would be out several million dollars, so we have to get their approval first before we send crews out there.”

Valencia Road in Aptos is one of several roads that has seen some major damage, most of which happened in 2017, though heavy rains this year have made the damage worse.

“We had a repair project in mind from the 2017 storms of approximately $1.8 million, so it’s a very expensive project that would include some soldier piles and some additional drainage, so we are going to ask our federal and state partners to expand the scope of that repair project to include the new damage.”

Aptos resident Bob Steinberg says he drives Valencia Road every day and he’s just happy crews are trying to fix it. “If they didn’t fix it, it would be dramatic on us because we would have to go all the way around. The fact that they are out here working on it is a blessing, and we appreciate it.”

There are more than 100 projects from 2016-2017 that are not done. Hoppins says they expect the road repairs to be complete in the next few years.